


The World Adjacent

by MissKatt



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, The Forbidden Game AU, no exy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-05-21 01:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14906231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissKatt/pseuds/MissKatt
Summary: Neil is sent to get a game for his best friend's party. The mysterious man behind the counter sells him a game that no one is prepared to play, least of all Neil.Secrets Revealed, Fears Unveiled - Play at your own risk.What happens when it's no longer just a game? What happens when a harmless hame night turns into a fight for survival and against your greatest fears?The Forbidden Game AU





	1. Swear on Your Life

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU of L.J. Smith's The Forbidden Game. One of my guilty pleasure books, I've read it a thousand times and just jad to write this. 
> 
> Let me know what you think!

The footsteps continued behind him, the stomp of boot soles and slap of worn sneakers. Neil knew they'd been following him for the last three blocks. He wondered if they were from his father. 

He turned from Pen Avenue to 87th Street, looking back as he turned the corner. Two men, tall and thin, shaggy clothes, and covered faces. Not from his father then, he'd never allow his acolytes to wear such clothes. 

He slowed, their footsteps followed around the corner and stumbled as they slowed to maintain their distance with his new pace. Definitely after him then. 

He needed to get somewhere. He didn't doubt his abilities to fight off two initiate-gangbanger wannabes but a fight might expose him and his overseeing agent would relocate him if it ended in a murder. With Neil's track record of impulse control, it would end in murder. 

He scanned the street desperately, glancing at his watch. Six o'clock. Shit. He had to be at Matt's in two hours for this stupid party. 

Tonight was Danielle's 25th birthday and as her boyfriend, Matt couldn't just throw any party. It had to be perfect. He'd planned a pool party and invited only their closest friends. Then the storm rolled in. Neil glanced up, rolling black clouds crept closer. The distant flash of lightning sounded off a staccatto burst of thunder. 

Thus, the pool party was cancelled and Matt desperately reached for new ideas. 

"A game night," he'd announced to Neil. "Old-fashioned and sophicated but a helluva lot of fun. Especially drunk." 

Neil had curled his nose. He could think of nothing worse than sitting surrounded by drunk people playing games he should already know how to play but doesn't. He wouldn't tell his friends that though, if they knew he'd never played Monoply or Life or Candyland they'd get those looks on their faces. Not pity, not exactly. Sadness, regret, anger on his behalf. He hated those looks. 

Luckily for him, Matt decided they needed something new. Something fun, something no one had ever played. 

Unluckily for him, that meant he was running around a bad part of town trying to locate this game store Matt found online. Neil was nearly certain it had closed down. Every building here was either a discrepit business doing shady work or abandoned. 

The footsteps picked up behind him. Neil sighed. He didn't have time to get mugged tonight. 

He turned another corner on to Montreal Avenue and saw boarded up door and windows. 

Dammit. 

He scanned the street again. A graffiti mural stretched across the buildings across the street. Abstract and colorful. Neil had no idea what it was supposed to be but he could admit it was pretty. 

He started. A random door handle was painted in realistic shiny copper on the mural. Neil ran closer, his heart pounding. 

For just once, Neil thought, let luck be on my side. 

He grabbed for the knob. Real.

He didn't think, opening the door and sliding inside. He shut the door behind him, locking it. 

He turned around to see where he was, praying to anything who would listen that it wasn't a mafia hideout or bingo hall. 

It was dim, the only light coming from a small red lamp on a center table and a high window on the side wall. 

It was crowded with tables, that were crowded with things. Neil walked slowly amongst them, filling the burning heat of adrenaline rush down his spine. 

Dolls of porcelain and wood lined a long shelf to his right. They seemed innocent enough, except for their eyes. Their eyes were. . . Neil didn't know. 

Dice scattered the tables. Twenty sided dice, triangle dice, normal cubes made of gems and rocks and wood. 

A triangular chess board. A 3D game with four levels of playing boards connected by slides and ladders. A short square table the size of a small dining set covered in colored squares and rounded ivory tiles decorated with flowers. A lotus, Neil recognized on one. 

And still more. Mah Jong tiles spilled across an emerald felt blanket. A stack of plastic cups, organized by color. Decks of cards of various number, with suits Neil had never seen. A large box, sitting closed with JUMUNJI written across it in orange letters. Neil thought he'd heard of that perhaps. 

"Can I help you?" 

Neil glanced up, only now noticing the black counter and the man behind it. He wondered how he'd missed him. The man was the only light in this place. White blond hair, slashed through with darker golds, eyes the color of melted down jewelry. 

No, his brain said, hazel. No one has gold eyes, it's the light.

The man reached over slowly, all grace and laziness, and turned off a record player. The store went suddenly silent. Neil hadn't even realized there'd been music playing, let alone how loud it was. His ears rang with silence. 

"Can I help you?" The man asked again. Neil flushed. 

"Yes," he answered. His voice betrayed none of his unease. He'd had a lot of practice with that. He walked to the counter, and rested his elbows on it. "I need a game. A fun one."

The man raised a single golden eyebrow. "Well I would hope so, given this is a game store. And I don't think they make games intended to be boring. Got any other requirements? We could be here for a while otherwise." 

Neil straightened at the condescending tone. "Weirdest game store I've ever seen. And you should probably be more polite. Can't get many customers with the camoflouge on the door." 

"And yet here you stand." The man moved around the counter and Neil was shocked. He rarely looked down on anyone. But this man was shorter than even Neil. 

Neil grinned. 

"What are you smiling at?" The man scowled. 

"You're short." 

"So are you."

"Hence the smile. I'm still taller." 

The man's blank expression didn't change. He motioned to a wall of boxes, then leaned against the shelf and stared at Neil, waiting. 

Neil looked at the boxes, clearly games. Monopoly, Sorry, Life, Trouble, ones he'd never heard of. Card games too - Cards Against Humanity and Exploding Kittens among them. He'd been explicitly told not to get those. Too cliché, according to Matt. 

Neil scannes over them all, to the higher shelves. Boxes of brown with no lables. A red box as long as he was tall. A green box that seemed to glow in the dark. At the very top was a neon orange box, stripped with black. He looked to the man to ask for that one when he notced a box by the man's black boots. 

It was tucked in to the very bottom corner, as though to keep it hidden. Pearly white and the size of a shoe box. 

"What's that?" He asked. 

The man's golden eyes followed his. His brow furrowed. "Not that one." 

Neil frowned. "Why not?" 

"Because I said so." 

Neil felt stubborness meld into his bones. "I want it. Can you play with seven people?"

The man hesitated, as though he wanted to say lie and say no. "Yes," he admitted slowly. "But you don't want that one." 

Neil stood up taller, he still felt small compared to the other. "Either tell me a real reason or sell me the game." Neil spared half a thought that he didn't even know what the game was, but the strange man didn't want him to have it. He had to have it. 

The man sighed and pushed away from the shelf. "Okay. Twenty."

Neil grinned, victorious. He handed over the money and the man walked back to the counter. He flipped the record player back on while Neil fought the shelf to get the white box without knocking over anything. 

He stood and turned back to the man. His golden eyes were fire-bright and intense. Neil felt a fire light in his stomach, danger his mind screamed. He blinked and the golden eyes were bland once more. He shook it off. His own nerves were causing him trouble. 

He backed to the door. "See ya later," he called as he closed the door. A habit, nothing else. As the door clicked closed he could've sworn he heard a reply. But no. Of course not, that wouldn't make sense. 

"At nine," echoed behind him. 

Neil closed the door behind him, scanning the street for his stalkers. No one. Not even the distant sound of footsteps. He glanced at his watch and felt his heart drop. There was no he'd been in there so long. He only half an hour to get to Matt's. 

Neil took off at a run. 

■■■■■■

Matt's mother was a professional boxer, his father a prestigious plastic surgeon. While his parents were no longer together (his mother's clean-eating life style wasn't conducive to his father's pension for drugs), the trust fund from both he'd inherited at twenty one and the savings account his mother had put all his child support money in since his thirteenth birthday had afforded him a massive safety net.

The house was a modest single story made of white brick and gray slate. The ceilings were twelve feet tall and the rooms enormous. It had been built in a style reminiscent of the 1920s but with all the modern updates needed by a twenty three year old and his long term girlfriend. 

Music blasted Neil the moment he opened the door. Heavy drums and screaming guitar told him Seth was here and playing DJ. The melodious voice that boomed from the speakers in song told him Allison was here too. Seth was keeping to the less screamo side of his metal music tastes. 

Neil followed the music out of the massive entryway. Seth sat in front of the stereo, scrolling through his playlist. Renee sat on the couch, a book open in her lap. Neil didn't understand how she could do that, read with so much noise around her. She smiled when she saw him. He sat down next to her, dropping the plain game box on the table. She glaced at it but couldn't ask over the music. He saw Allison and Dan in the kitchen, cooking. How much food did they need? The ten person dining table was covered in shit food. Kevin stood next to it, scowling. Nothing healthy and meal-plan approved here. Neil grinned and closed his eyes, white blonde hair and golden eyes flashed behind his eyelids. 

They couldn't have been gold. 

The music changed, slower and deeper than the last. A whispering voice sang 

"My fate growing up, was with the family blood  
One night...my father left  
I asked him if I could go where he went." 

Neil's eyes flew open. His heart stopping.

"I don't understand...why's that gun in your hand?  
Daddy, why's he on his knees  
Please don't make him bleed!"

He glared at Seth, the blood draining from his face. 

"Why's he breathing so hard  
I remember what he said with that look in his eyes..." 

He couldn't know. Seth didn't know. It was just a coincidence. One hell of a coincidence after this night. The stalkers, the game store, the man in black. 

"Fall on your knees and plead my name  
Beg me, scream, and take the pain." 

He stood violently and left for the kitchen before Seth noticed him. He wasn't in the mood for a fight over a song when no one would understand why he couldn't listen to it. 

Matt came in from the backyard, burgers on a plate in his hand. More food? 

He grinned at Neil, "You're here! Great. What did you get?"

Allison laughed, "You sent him to get a game? We're going to end up playing Uno." 

"One what?" Neil asked. 

Allison laughed harder. Matt ruffled his hair. Neil looked at Kevin. 

"There's literally nothing green on this table," Kevin lamented. 

Dan threw a package of green laffy taffy onto the table. 

Kevin left and barked at Seth to turn his "godawful anger music off."

"Yeah," Allison agreed from next to Renee. "We all know your emotionally stunted. Doesn't mean we need to suffer with you." 

Neil sat next to Dan who was on the floor by the coffee table. "What kind of box is this?" She reached for it, then yelped and pulled her hand away. 

Neil jumped. Everyone turned to Dan. 

She grinned sheepishly, "Static. It shocked me." 

Neil sighed. He didn't know why he was so jumpy. It was a game box. Not a bomb. He reached for it to prove to himself. He opened the box and stared. 

"The fuck is this?" Seth demanded.

The box was full of laminated paper of various sizes and colors. A deck of cards sat off to the corner. 

Renee moved over, pulling a sheaf of paper out. "I think it's a doll house. One of the ones you build." 

Kevin looked at Neil. "You bought a doll house?" 

"I didn't know what it was. The guy at the game store just said-" Neil stopped. When he friends kept looking, waiting, he continued. "He said I couldn't have that one. That I didn't want it anyway. So... I bought it."

Matt cackled, "I don't ever want to hear you say you're not difficult and stubborn ever again." 

Allison was grinning viciously. "Let's put it together. We come up with our own X rated game once we finish the house." She held up human-shaped cut outs. 

They got to work. Renee, Kevin, Allison and Dan got to work on the house. Matt and Neil built the furniture. Seth sat on the couch. Supervising, he claimed. 

The house was three stories with a turrett at the top. There were a dozen rooms and labyrinthine hallways. Balconies and hidden alcoves. Surprisingly complex, given it's a children's toy. The turrett had a door to the outside that led to a four story drop. It was... strange. Neil thought it was the kind of place the strange man from the store might live. He quickly threw that thought aside. 

Allison decorated the house with the furniture Neil and Matt built. Oriental screens, ornate cabinets and tables, curtains, rugs, couches filled the mansion. 

Dan read through the directions. "You know, I don't think this is a kid's toy. The directions explain a game." 

"How do you play a game with a dollhouse?" Seth sneered. Allison rolled her eyes.

Dan grinned, "These paper dolls." She held up human shaped cut outs. "We draw ourselves on them and they're our playing piece. The starting point is the parlor. We have to move through the house to get to the turrett at the top." She passed around the dolls. Neil was beginning to think this game was too much work. Everyone was having fun though, so he played along. Even Seth, his curiosity piqued, colored in his playing piece without complaining. Much. 

"This sounds boring. Like a fancier version of Shoots and Ladders," Kevin said. Neil thought of the four teired game in the store, connected by slides and ladders. 

Ah, that makes sense. He should've bought that, he thought. 

Dan grabbed a handful of blank white cards and passed them around. "There's more. The house is haunted. You encounter a different nightmare in every roomwhile you try to get to the top. And you have to watch out for the Shadow Man, the demon of fear itself who lives in the house." She grinned maniacally. "Cool, right?" 

She held up the blank cards in her hand. 

"You're supposed to draw your greatest fear on these. It says to be honest, 'The Game will know if you lie.'" 

Allison read off the title card, "Secrets Reveiled, Fears Unveiled. I think I'm going to like this game." 

Neil swallowed hard. Renee reluctantly took a card. Matt chewed on his lip as he drew. Seth stared at his card, then looked around. Everyone was drawing but them. Neil caught his eyes. Seth's gaze hardened and he grabbed a purple crayon from the box. Conveniently provided by the box. It was odd, how much this box held. It had hardly weighed anything.

When they were all done, Renee took the cards and shuffled them, laying them face down in the house at random. 

Neil had successfully chosen a game. They were all excited and having fun, or at least curious enough to keep playing. Yet he felt hot inside - like a lobster in a pot, water gradually growing warmer, slowing boiling him alive with him none the wiser. 

Allison looked at Seth's green and purple crayons, used up to stubs. "What did you draw?" 

"No!" Matt shouted. "It's a secret. We're not supposed to know." 

Seth stuck his tongue out at Allison. She glared back, suspicious. 

"Now we need the Shadow Man," Dan grinned. She held up another paper doll, this one already drawn. Neil's head filled with the roaring of a forest fire. The Shadow Man had vibrant golden eyes. 

Not possible. No. It can't be. Neil chewed his lip. Maybe the guy at the store designed the game. Made it himself, and gave himself a central role in it. People have weird hobbies. Neil used to sharpen knives to relax. It's possible. That's got to be it, not anything else. 

"You okay?" Matt asked, nudging him in the ribs. 

"Fine." Neil said. He forced a smile for authenticity. Matt stared for a moment, doubting. But Neil was a skilled liar and his friend turned away again. 

"Next is the oath," Kevin proclaimed. He'd taken the instructions from Dan. "We have to swear that we're playing this game of our own free will and we understand that the game is real." He read directly from the card, "There is a Shadow World, like our own but different. World Adjacent it is called by some. Land of Dreams by others, though it is as real as anything else. You play at your own risk, as the Shadow World is dangerous and can be hazardous to your life." 

"I don't know about this," Renee said. "Something doesn't feel right." 

"What is it, Godly Girl?" Seth huffed. "Afraid of a game? Or the idea of another world that isn't run by your oh so benevolent god?" 

Renee was unmoved, "My god is hardly benevolent. If you'd ever read the bible, you'd know that. This game just seems off, is all." 

Neil was silently pleased someone else had said it. 

Allison tossed her hair. "C'mon. Live dangerously. It'll be fun."

Dan shrugged, "What else do we have to do anyway?" She held up her hand, palm out. "I swear that I'm playing of my own free will and I understand the game is dangrous." 

Allison echoed her, then Matt. 

"I swear," Kevin agreed, hesitant. 

"Me too," Seth nodded. 

Renee and Neil swore last. 

Seth handed forward the cards he'd been shuffling. 

"Who wants to go first?" Dan looked around. 

If he was going to do this, he was going to committ to it, Neil thought. He reached for a card. 

"You have gathered in this room, among friends to play The Game." 

Matt snorted. "Well, that was antclimatic." 

He drew next. "Each of you has a secret you'd rather die than reveal." 

Neil met Renee's eyes across the table. The cards had been shuffled for several minutes in Seth's fidgeting hands. How were they lined up like that? It was impossible. 

Neil was starting to hate that word. And this game. 

Dan drew next. "You hear footsteps from above." She frowned. "This is a one story house. They didn't plan this game well, some people don't live in multi-stories." 

Kevin leaned forward, "Your in this house, remember?" He motioned to the paper masion and their figures in the first floor parlor. 

"Right. My bad." Dan reached to put the card back when they heard it. Footsteps, from above. 

Neil felt his stomach burn like acid. Seth stared at the ceiling. Dan stood. Renee had gone completely still. Matt reached for Dan's hand. 

Allison laughed. "Squirrels. They run along the roof all the time." 

She was right, and every giggled nervously as the returned to the game. Neil didn't say that squirrels didn't sound like that. 

Seth drew his card. "You go to the door to let in a breeze. The door is stuck." 

Everyone looked at the sliding door to the backyard. 

"Oh, whatever, guys. Really?" Seth went to the door. 

"Seth, maybe you shouldn't -" Renee started. 

Seth yanked on the door. It didn't move. Neil stood, followed by Renee. 

"The lock, dumbass." Allison said. "Unlock it." 

Seth flipped the locks and pulled again. The door didn't budge. 

Dan moved to the front door, yanking and pulling. Nothing. 

"Oh my god," Matt whispered. Kevin groaned, pulling his knees to his chest. 

"Don't be ridiculous!" Allison snapped. She pulled another card and read silently. Dan and Seth moved to the windows. Neil could see the strain on their faces reflected in the glass. Nothing would open. 

Neil turned to Allison, his voice hoarse. "What did your card say?"

She was staring at Dan and Seth. She didn't answer. Kevin snatched the card from her hand. 

"None of the doors or windows will open. You're trapped inside." 

The room fell silent. No one moved.

Renee reached for a card, her hand steady despite the paleness of her face. 

"No!" Matt yelled. "Stop drawing cards!" 

"We have to play," Neil said, his breath hot with fear in his throat. "We swore we'd play." 

"No. We don't." Seth said, vehemently. "It's a stupid game. That's all. It's not real." 

Allison raised an eyebrow and quoted, "It is as real as anything else." 

No one had anything to say to that. Renee drew her card. "A clock strikes nine." 

Kevin looked at Matt, "Do you have any clocks that strike? Do you?" he demanded. 

Matt rapidly shoot his head. "No. No, I d-" 

Chimes rang through the room. Dan sank to her knees. Renee clutched her cross necklace, eyes closed. Allison's breathing was loud. 

The clock struck the hour. One. Two. Three. 

"Oh my god," Allison whispered. 

Four. Five. Six. 

Neil remembered. See you later, he'd said. At nine, the man in black replied. At nine. 

Seven. 

"No," Neil whispered. 

Eight. Nine. 

The room went dark.


	2. Not Of This World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The game begins. Matt faces his fear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be posting trigger warnings for each chapter here, so check them before you read. 
> 
> I don't think there is any for this chapter but if there is let me know and I'll add it.

Neil woke up on the ground, his face pressed to soft gray carpet. He jumped to his feet, wishing he'd stayed in the habit of carrying knives. 

Seth pulled himself to his feet, using the wall for leverage. Renee and Allison sat up on the floor, neither stood but they stared wide eyed around the room. 

"Is this. . ." Dan blinked. 

"The parlor," Matt's voice was a whisper. "Are we, are we inside the house? The paper house?" 

Neil could hear Seth tapping the wall behind him. He muttered under his breath about how he must have relapsed. He was high. He had to be high. 

Neil had never been high. He thought it might feel like this. A burning settled beneath his ribs, this was bad. What was going on? 

Allison clutched at Renee's hand. "Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god."

Matt laughed hysterically, looking to Dan. "Is this real? Babe, is this real?" 

Dan walked on shaking legs to a candelbra on the wall. She reached for the flame. 

"Dan!" Neil yelped. 

She jerked her hand back. "It burned. It hurt." Her eyes filled with tears, she didn't let them fall. "It's real." 

"Oh thank god." Everyone swung toward Seth. He reclined against wall, eyes closed. Neil had never wanted to hit him more. Allison moved to her exboyfriend, taking his hands. Whatever she whispered to him was inaudible to Neil. 

He closed his eyes, counting to ten in German, then back down to one in French. He opened his eyes, focused. "What do we do now? How do we get out?"

Kevin spoke for the first time, sitting quiet and still in the corner. "What if we can't? What if we're trapped in this. . . place?" 

Allison turned from Seth. "Maybe it's real. That doesn't mean we're actually in the game. We can't be in the game. That's bullshit. It's virtual reality. Or we were drugged at Matt's and taken here." She breathed slowly. 

"If it's VR, where's our helmets?" Renee asked quietly. She seemed to gather herself together more the longer they stood here. "Technology hasn't advanced this far." Allison glared at her, Renee just shrugged in apology. 

"Fine. Then we were kidnapped. Who has someone after them that would do this?" 

The answer to that was unsettling.

"It's not real?" Kevin snapped, his voice condescending and terrified. "Then explain that." 

He stood at the lone window in the room, curtain pulled back. Neil moved to his side. The world outside was. . . wrong. A sky of emerald green, clouds of obsidian stone. Lightning flashed along the ground, illuminating shadows the size of buildings moving in the distance. Shadows for things Neil couldn't comprehend. 

Neil pushed away, his heart hammering. Seth dry heaved into the potted plant. 

"Okay. Okay." Matt paced the floor. "We need to leave. Now." 

"And how do we do that?" Allison hissed. 

"You play The Game." 

The voice belonged to none of them. Neil recognized it instantly. He looked to his friends, faces pale and staring over his shoulder. Neil turned. 

The golden eyed man stood in the doorway, short and dressed in all black. His face was bored as it had been in the store. 

Seth gasped, "It's him. From the box. The doll." 

Dan's knuckles were white where she clutched Matt's arm. "The Shadow Man." 

"Who are you?" Kevin asked. Neil was surprised he'd spoken at all. He wasn't known for his courage. Alas, if there was one thing Kevin hated, it was not knowing things. You can't be an insufferable know it all while ignorant. 

The man's eyes drifted disdainfully over Kevin and continued over them all. It was the look of a predator, sizing them up. Neil felt the golden eyes on him, a dousing of ice over his head. He met the stare head on, meeting golden eyes - and yes, they were truly gold. 

The man pushed away from the wall, arms crossing over his chest. The candles lit the planes of his face, blank and sharply cut. His demeanor said he'd weighed their value and found them wanting. 

"You can call me Andrew," he finally answered. His voice was soft, someone who didn't need to raise their voice to be heard, and roughed like sandstone. 

Such an ordinary name. Neil almost laughed. 

"Is that your name?" Allison placed her hands on her hips. When she was uncomfortable, the legacy Manhattan heiress came out to play. 

Andrew grinned savagely. It didn't reach his eyes. "Does it matter?"

"We're not scared of you," Dan said. Clearly a lie, but said with enough confidence to encourage the others. 

"We want to know what's going on." Matt continued. 

"We haven't done anything. Just let us go home," Seth demanded. 

Andrew looked at each of them turn. Eyes spearing through Dan, cutting across Matt, staring down Seth. 

"You're not going home," Andrew said. His eyes turned to Neil. "You agreed to the Game. Now you play." 

"How is this even possible? Where are we?" Neil needed answers. You have to know what your dealing with if you want to win. 

Andrew's sigh was long suffering. "When you swore to play, you invoked the rune 'Uruz.' It pierces the veil between the worlds. It carried you here, to the Shadow World." 

"The fuck is a rune?" Dan's fear was quickly being replaced by anger. 

"Magic." Andrew's matter of fact tone belied his words. "Something that if you don't understand it, you shouldn't have played around with. Much like ouija board." The last part was tacked on like a joke. 

"We didn't mean to mess with anything," Seth claimed. "It was a mistake." 

Andrew's lip curled. "Some mistake. And now you play. You play until you win or until I do." 

"But why?" Renee moved towards the Shadow Man, her voice calm. Andrew's eyes settled on her, he seemed vaguely interested. His eyes tracked the decreasing distance between them as she moved, placing herself in front. She stopped just outside arms reach. "What do you want?" 

"I want nothing," Andrew replied. "The rules are these: make it to the tower by dawn and escape. Or stay here, trapped forever." 

"Like fucking hell!" Seth lunged for the Shadow Man. He shoved the Shadow Man against the wall, a punch going to his face while the other held choked his neck. He froze midswing and screamed, falling back. Scrambling on the floor as he screamed. He hit the wall, kicking out at the air around him. 

"Seth!" Allison screamed. She ran to him. 

"No!" Seth yelled. "Don't come closer! Don't, Allison! They'll get you to!" He continued to kick at the air. Tears streamed down his face. 

"What are you doing?" Neil's voice was all heat, Andrew blinked slowly at him. Allison grabbed on to Seth and he pulled her to him, tightly. Neil couldn't tell if he was sheilding her with his body or using her as a shield himself. 

"I suggest you not try to attack me. It won't end well." 

"What are you doing to him?" Neil asked again. 

Andrew sighed, "The game is to face your fears. Seth here is getting a free trial. The game hasn't begun yet. No need for the rest of you to participate." 

Seth screamed again, his voice raw and choked. Allison clutched him to her, repeating over and over that it wasn't real. Nothing was there. 

"Doesn't look like he's conquered it yet." 

Neil stared at Andrew, dread pooling like a hot spring in his stomach. "Where do we start?" 

Andrew smiled. Neil felt a rush of terror down to his feet. Run, run, run. 

The screaming stopped and Neil spun. Seth was gone. Allison, too. They all were. 

"Where are they? What did you with them?" 

"They're here. In the house. You'll find them as you go." 

Neil stared, "As I go? Just me?" 

"Of course. You bought the game. Your friends will face their fears while waiting for you. Some will conquer them alone and search for you. Others will need help to overcome them. Others may not over come them at all." 

Neil didn't like the look on Andrew's face. "What does that mean? If they can't over come them?" 

"They die."

Neil's world tilted. Andrew kept talking, "And if you die in this world, you die in yours, too." 

Hazardous to your life. Swear that you understand. Hazardous to your life. Dangerous.

The words seared themselves in Neil's brain. 

He couldn't breathe. Smoke filled his lungs. 

"You have until dawn. That's 6:11 am. If you don't make in time, you lose. Here's a reminder." A clock chimed through the mansion. Ten o'clock. 

Neil forced himself to focus. A little over eight hours. They could do this. 

"I would hurry, Neil. You don't want to waste any time. Your friends are already playing and I can tell you now one of you probably won't make it." 

Neil's head snapped up, but the Shadow Man was gone. 

▪▪▪▪

Every muscle in Neil's body told him to stay put. Stay where you know. This parlor was the safest place in this house right now. 

But his friends were scattered around the house. He needed to find them. If anything happened- no, nothing would happen. He'd get to them in time. They were strong. They'd been through hell in life already and hadn't broken, they could do this. 

He emerged from the room, keeping his back to the wall. He envisioned the paper house, mapping the routes in his head. He just had to hope the house wouldn't magically change on them. He climbed the stairs sideways, alternating between looking up at his goal and down at the shadowy recesses of the rest of the house. God, he wished he had his gun. Or knives. As much as he hated using them, he was good with them and a weapon would be nice right about now. Maybe if they killed the Shadow Man the game would end and they could leave. 

He reached the landing, the hallway on either side stretching forever in to blackness. Ancient wooden floors and peeling floral wallpaper made it seem like an century's old hotel, like one Neil and his mother would have stayed at in Europe. 

He jolted. That's exactly what it looked like. . . He breathed through his nose, shoving the implication aside. One problem at a time. But he knew it never worked like that. 

He chose a direction and started walking, dragging his fingers along the wall. A trick his mother taught him. 

"If your ever in a maze, the surest way out is to follow the direction of the wall, left or right, it doesn't matter." His mother had said. "Just follow it and you'll get out. Maybe not the fastest, maybe not the most direct, but surely."

 

After a while, he saw a light flicker up ahead. A candle. Because why would you invest in magical overhead lighting with no electricity bill when you can have shitty candles instead. 

Neil hovered just out of the light, waiting. The candle hung on the wall next to a door, a door bulging and shaking, like something pressed against trying to escape. A hissing growl resonated from inside. 

A sudden bang shook the door, snapping it nearly off it's hinges. Neil blinked, pressing his back to the wall, preparing to run. 

The door shook again, the hinges straining, Neil moved quickly around it. He kept his eyes on it the whole way down the hall, until he reached a corner. 

He paused, taking his eyes off the door long enough to check around the bend. 

And there was Matt, shoving hard against a door, in which a deep, booming growl echoed from. The door bulged in the middle like the one Neil had passed. The difference was this one was open just a smidge. Matt was trying to close it. 

Neil ran to him, throwing his own weight against the door. 

Matt glanced at him, relief coloring his face. "Neil. Thank god. Are you okay?" 

Neil grunted in affirmation. How the hell had Matt held this himself? 

They pushed together against the door, Matt bracing his feet against the opposing wall for leverage. Neil was too short for that. 

"Push!" Neil yelled. 

"What do think I'm doing?" Matt snapped. He walked his legs up the wall to get a more horizontal grip. 

Neil glanced down at the knob, a key sitting in the lock. 

"Push!" Neil yelled again, throwing his weight again the door. 

Matt strained at the same time to straighten his legs. The door inched shut, the latch clicking. Neil turned the key and heard the lock slam into place. Matt fell to the ground, gasping for air. 

Neil back up to the wall and slid down to sit. 

"Holy cheetos, Batman," Matt groaned. Then he laughed, "you should be a birthing coach." 

Neil looked at him, confused. Matt just kept laughing, somewhat hysterically. 

"Have you seen anyone else?" Neil asked. 

Matt shook his head, his laughter dying to hiccups. "The last thing I remember was being in the parlor, talking to - to him, the Shadow Man. Then I woke up on the floor here. Opened the door to see where it went and came face to face with that monster." 

 

The key in the door turned, the lock slid free with a bang. They jumped to their feet, Matt holding a boxer's stance; Neil's hands scrabbled at his waistband, where his knives usually were. 

The door didn't open, no sounds coming from inside. 

"We have to open it," Neil realized. "It's the game." 

"Like hell!" Matt turned on his heal, walking swiftly down the hall. Neil sighed, following his friend. The rounded a corner - the house layout was definietly not like the paper house, dammit - and found themselves facing the door again.

Matt let out a string of curses. 

"We have to-" 

Matt interrupted, "I know! I know. Fuck." He jumped on the balls of his feet. "We'll open it a little. So when the creature comes running, we can close it again." 

Neil nodded, grabbing to door handle. Matt stood at his side, braced for a fight. 

The knob turned easily, not even a squeak. Neil breathed through his nose, sweat sliding down his spine. He cracked open the door. 

Nothing. He opened a little more. Silence. He threw open the door. Matt squealed. 

The door banged against the hallway wall, the candle light flickering in the breeze it caused. 

"The shit?" Neil asked, looking at Matt. Matt's dark skin was damp with sweat, his eyes wide and white in the dark. 

It was Matt's room. They moved inside, stopping just inside the door. The walls were a light gray, carpet white. The dresser and desk were black wood, the unmade bed shoved into the corner. Clothes spilled from the closet and textbooks covered the floor. The TV silently played Cold Case reruns. 

The door slammed shut behind them. It disappeared. 

"Well," Neil said. "That's not good." 

"I'm going to kill you." 

They looked around the room, Matt dug through the closet to see if a way out hid in there. 

The continued their search for a while before Matt collapsed on his bed. 

Neil's mind spun. "Okay. Okay. We have to play the game. The guy said the game is to face our fears. So this has to be yours. What did you draw?" 

"What else did he say?" Matt asked instead. "You talked to him after we left, right? He seemed more focused on you than the rest of us. What is he?" 

Neil shook his head. "I don't know. Something else. I don't know if he's even human." 

"That's reassuring." Matt ran a hand over his face, then stood. "This is batshit crazy, man." 

Neil had to agree. But he preferred not to think about it. He would panic and freak out and have an existential crisis once they were safe. Not yet. 

A vibrant white light cut through the room, blinding Neil. He blinked rapidly, and the light faded away. When he could see again, he found Matt at the window. He gazed at the sky, a death grip on the window sill. 

Coals filled Neil's mouth. "What are you afraid of?" 

Matt didn't answer, he lunged away from the window, grabbing Neil and pulling him to the floor. 

Matt shushed him. The light filled the room again. A spotlight, Neil guessed, as he watched it cross over the window again. 

"What did you draw?" he whispered. Dread settled in his chest. 

Matt shook next to him. The spotlight returned, this time staying on the window. Matt's breathing grew frantic. Something punched through the ceiling, raining plaster and insulation down on them. Neil scrambled up, dragging Matt with him. They backed into the corner, Neil finally getting a view of what crashed through the roof. 

A long silver tentacle, made of layered metal plates curled through the room. The tip was serrated, a red light glowing deep in the hollow tube of the tentacle. It moved like a snake, fluid and graceful. A whirring noise emanated from within, like a dental drill turned up high. 

Matt whimpered at his side, clutching Neil's arm in a vice-like grip. At the noise, the tentacle twisted back on itself, turning to face them. Neil froze, Matt froze. 

The red light became brighter, brighter. Neil looked away, unable to keep watching. He heard Matt scream and felt a sucker punch to his chest. The world swam in red, pulsing and hot. 

Neil opened his eyes to a cage. They swung from a spherical cage, dangling from a floating metal ship. The tentacle wasn't alone, several hung from the ship swirling about the world below them. A squid, Neil thought absently. He saw people-shaped shadows running. Lazers shooting as a red beam from the end and upon contact, the person vanished. 

Neil tried to move and realized he was chained to the wall of the sphere. Matt was chained across from him. 

Neil had never seen him so scared, sweat dripped from his ashen face, the whites of his eyes fully shown, pupils blown wide. He was shaking violently. 

"What is this?" Neil's throat hurt, his voice scratched out of him. He couldn't remember screaming. 

 

Matt started at him, hyperventilating. He couldn't get enough air to speak. 

Face your fear. Face your fear. Face your fear. 

"Matt," Neil's voice was a demand, an order. "Matthew. Look at me. You need to calm down. You need to breathe." 

The cage shook. Matt screamed. 

Neil jumped for Matt, crossing the cage and slamming into the bars. He grabbed Matt's chains to pull himself up. 

The chains. He looked at his wrists, shackles still tight enough to bruise around them. They hadn't been that long before. 

Neil stared at the chains, retracing the last few moments. 

He'd forgotten the chains when he'd gone to Matt, never doubting he would make it. 

Neil closed his eyes, hand circling his wrist. He breathed in the sticky summer heat around them, the electric charge in the atmosphere around them tasted like iron on his tongue. He opened his eyes to free wrists. 

"Matt!" He grabbed his friends face, forcing him to look at him. "It's not real. You need to calm down, breathe, slow your heart rate. It's not real." 

Matt stuttered, teeth clacking, "it-it's as-s r-real as any-anything else."

Neil was going to punch anyone who said that again. He was going to burn that card to ash, alongside that forsaken paper house. 

"It's in your head, it seems real. It's not." He slapped Matt's face just enough to sting. "C'mon, Matt! Dammit. Just breathe." 

Neil was not great at comforting people. But it worked. The minutes ticked by but Matt's breathing evened out, though it was still shallow. 

"O-okay," Matt nodded vigorously. "Now what?" 

We need to get out, Neil thought. But how?" He glanced around the cage, built like a globe. They'd gotten in somehow, though. They could get out. He refused to acknowledge teleportation as a viable transportation option. 

"There," Matt pointed. Hinges sat below them, nearly seemless with the rest of the cage bars. "We can b-break those." 

Neil glanced down at the thousands feet drop below them to the ground. Thank god Matt wasn't scared of heights. Neil thought he might be after this. 

They managed to stand, Matt's shackles had disappeared but Neil didn't think it was good idea to point that out. They found the latch for the cage door. Standing between that and the hinges they began to jump. 

"Three, two, one," Neil counted and jumped. Matt jumped just before him, the hinges held. 

"Wait," Matt grabbed Neil's shoulder as the cage swung again, tipping them sideways. "On one or after one." 

Neil let out a long suffering groan, "After one." Matt nodded. 

It took them a dozen or more tries before the hinges snapped, the cage filled with red light, the whirring noise stabbing their ears. They grabbed their heads, Matt screaming. 

"Again!" Neil screamed over the noise. "Jump again!" 

Somehow Matt managed to jump, the hinges gave way at the same time as his legs. 

They plummeted through the sky, the red lazer chasing them. 

It shot towards them. The ground rocketing closer. Neil screamed, bracing himself. He only now remembered The Shadow Man's warning. If you die in the Game, you die for real. 

Matt's hand was fisted in Neil's shirt, his screams echoing Neil's. They closed their eyes. . . 

. . . And slammed hard on to something soft and bouncy. Neil bounced off, landing on a white carpeted floor. 

They were back in Matt's room. Neil pushed to his knees, only to be grabbed around the chest by Matt and dragged through the now-reappeared door back to the hallway. 

The door slammed behind them, both of them collapsed on the floor. 

Neil looked at Matt. His face was pale and tight, eyes glowing white and skin sweaty. But he was here and he met Neil's eyes with little fear. 

"You did it," Neil said. 

Matt held up a white card, a drawing of a space ship with tentacles flying through the sky amidst red lazer beams on it. 

"What the hell, man?" Neil had to know. "Aliens?" 

Matt grinmed weakly. "I snuck downstairs when I was about six to watch TV. Started watching this movie called War of the Worlds. Scarred me for life." 

Neil shook his head and stood. He offered a hand to Matt and pulled him to his feet. 

"Only six more people to find and six more fears to conquer," Neil quipped. 

Matt groaned. Neil walked down the hall, Matt at his heels. He rounded a corner, and promptly lost his friend. 

Neil spun, cursing. 

"Enjoying the game?" the Shadow Man asked. He leaned against the hall, the candle behind his head giving him a halo. He'd ditched the black on black t-shirt and jeans for leather pants and dark gray button down of silk, the sleeves rolled up. 

Neil realized that while he was slightly taller, Andrew was much broader. He crossed his musclular arms over his wide chest, drawing Neil's attention the expanse of his shoulders. There was no way Neil could take him in a straight fight. He doubted the Shadow Man would fight fair. 

"You were there?" 

"I'm always watching. Instigating. Influencing." Andrew gave a manic grin. "It's more fun when everyone participates, don't you think?" 

Neil stared back in silence. Andrew sighed. 

"What do you want?" Neil finally asked, as the silence stretched. He was on a time limit. "To waste my time so we lose?" 

"Who said I want you to lose? Maybe I just want things to be interesting." 

Neil grit his teeth. 

"Here," Andrew held out his hand, a knife in it. The silver hilt faced Neil, the blade in Andrew's palm. 

Stupid, Neil thought, I could easily cut his hand when I take it or push it back into his gut, pull up to disembowl him. It would be so easy. 

Neil met Andrew's eyes, he could see the challenge in the gold. 

"Why?" Neil asked, not reaching to take it. 

"You wanted one, didn't you?" was his reply, mocking and revealing all at once.

Neil felt his lungs freeze. "You can read our minds," he whispered. 

"No. Not exactly. I know your fears. I can sense you desires. I'm no mind reader," Andrew hummed. "How dull that would be." 

"What's the price? For the knife?" 

Andrew grinned, it chilled Neil's blood. "You don't think it's free? A gift?" 

"Nothing is free. Everything has a price." 

"Hell is now satisfied," Andrew murmured. Then, louder: "No price. You just have to take it. Who knows? You might need it later." 

Neil stared at the knife, glinting in candlight. Flames reflected in Andrew's eyes.

It wasn't truly free, Neil knew. But he'd pay whatever price necessary in order to protect his friends. They were all he had. 

He took the knife, his fingers brushing Andrew's as he did. Ice shot through his nerves and he yanked his hand away. 

Andrew's eyes were blank, as he saluted Neil with a lazy two finger wave. Neil slid the knife into his waistband. 

Andrew rounded the corner Neil had just come around. Where Matt was. 

Neil rushed around the corner. He slammed into Matt. 

"Where did you go?" Matt yelled. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!" 

Neil stared at his friend, relief making his legs weak. A distant clock chimed eleven.

"We have a little over seven hours to win this game," Neil said. "Until dawn. We have to go." 

Matt silenced, and they continued through the halls. 

"Neil!" A voice yelled behind them. "Matt! Thank god. I've been wandering these halls forever." 

Allison rushed towards them, pulling them in for a hug. 

"What the fuck are we supposed to do?" 

Neil swallowed acid. "Play the game. Face our fears." He eyed a set of ornate double doors that appeared down the hall. They looked like the entryway doors of Allison's formal dining room in her inherited mansion. "And I think your next." 

Allison flushed with rage. "Then let's not play. Just sit down and refuse." 

Neil shook his head. "We can't. If we don't make it to the tower by dawn, we lose by default. We'd be trapped here." 

"I've never lost anything by default." Matt took Allison's hand. "What did you draw?" He asked. Allison didn't seem to care that he held her hand, she took Neil's as well. 

"Does it matter?" She replied, resigned. "It won't change anything." 

And with that she strode towards her worst fear, pulling them along with her. 

"At least I'm not alone this time," she whispered, half under her breath. She reached to open the doors. 

"Wait!" Matt pulled her back. "What if there's another monster inside?" 

Neil stared at the door, then nodded to Matt. 

"Monster positions," Matt ordered, dropping into a fighting stance. Neil readied himself to fight. They looked to Allison. 

Allison looked back and forth between them. "Oh, no." She backed up a little. "This skirt is Dolce. It's not meant for fighting." 

Matt sighed, and grabbed the handle. 

"Now," Neil said, hand on the knife still hidden in his shirt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!
> 
> Next chapter: Allison's fear and probably Renee and/or Kevin
> 
> I have this set to 5 chapters but that may change. Maybe more, maybe less. I'm winging it all at this point.


	3. Because of You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alison's fear. Another visit from the Shadow Man. Kevin's fear. Things may not be as they seem in the Mansion of Fear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Possible triggers for body image issues and abuse. Nothing major but just in case.

Here's the thing about Allison Reynolds. She was a conundrum; a magnet that draws people, some to one side of her and some to the opposite charge. She was both the deadly spark that resulted from opposing electrical wires connecting, and the city the lit up in bright lights. To settle her in any one box would be the death of you, by her hand most likely. 

Her father wanted an heir. A business mogul, fierce and untouchable. A child who would carry on the Reynold's legacy and bend the world to it's knees. A heir who fought for what they wanted and didn't know the meaning of impossible or accept no as an answer. He'd done his damndest to sculpt his daughter in his image. You could say a lot of things about Mr. Reynolds, but he'd never expected any less from his daughter than he'd dreamed of for the son's he never had. 

Her mother wanted a debutante. Someone beautiful and envied, polite and intelligent. Someone worth bragging about and to whom everyone else looked and desired to be or be with. A picturesque, perfect woman who heralded the upperclass to her like moths to flame. The most anything, the best everything. She would marry the richest and birth the most beautiful. Mrs. Reynolds never wanted a little girl, and thus never had a little girl. She had Allison, a supernova of womanhood, beauty, and grace. 

Allison's parents had molded her from birth. Her mother scultped the outside, beautiful and pristine. Her father branded the inside, determination and strength.

Neil had always admired Allison. She drew attention to her in any room and wielded it like weapons. Her beauty was the downfall of all who looked upon her with favor, for they rarely looked any further than the porcelain skin. Honesty was her sword; Neil knew all too well the power of the truth and Allison never shied from it. 

Neil had no idea what to expect in Allison's nightmare. If it was half as terrifying as the woman herself, Neil didn't think he and Matt would make it. 

It was a room of mirrors. The door sealed behind them, enclosing the three of them in an endless iteration of themselves. Matt stood behind him, he met his eyes through the glass. 

"A mirror maze?" Matt asked. He looked to Allison. "Seriously? I fucking hate these things." 

"Maybe it's your fear then," Allison turned around, her heels spinning like a top. "I like mirror mazes. This reminds me of one I went to in Branson. Best vacation ever because my parents weren't there." 

Matt scoffed, "I already went through mine. I'm done. If I get another, I'll file a complaint with the Shadow Man." 

"I'd love to see that," Neil put his hands in his pockets, feeling the reassuring outline of the knife at his waistband. 

Allison gasped. She stood in front of one mirror, her eyes wide and her hand over her mouth. She made a choking sound.

Neil tensed, waiting. Matt moved closer to his side. 

".... Allison?" 

Her hand shook as she removed it from her mouth, blinking fast. She turned quickly, putting her back to the mirror. 

She stumbled, eyes locked on the mirror now in front of her. She screamed as she fell back, her hands flying all over her body. 

"No. Nonononononono," Allison's eyes turned red with tears, she slapped them away before they fell.

"Allison?" Matt touched her shoulder, pulling her closer to them. 

"Do you see that?" Allison demanded. "Do you?!" 

Matt shook his head, "What do you see?" 

Allison's eyes were wide, her hands pressed to her stomach. "It's fine. Nothing. A trick mirror." She laughed forcefully, tossing her hair. 

Neil stared at each mirror, at the endless Neil's and Matt's and Allison's inside them. He hated not knowing. He gripped his knife a little tighter. 

Allison was staring in another mirror. Her face said she didn't like what she saw. Neil knew better than to ask. 

Allison was proud but she wasn't vain. Neil knew this wasn't about a fun house mirror. This was the prequel.

He watched Allison's eyes move around room, never stilling. Watching and waiting. No, this wasn't it. 

She moved slowly forward, reaching toward the mirror. 

"Fuck this," she whispered under her breath as her fingers grazed her reflection. 

When she pulled her hand away, her fingers didn't follow. Allison stared at her stretching fingers as they disappeared into the glass. Her wrist stretched to follow, then her arm and so on. She was being sucked into the mirror. 

Matt yelled and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back. Neil went to the glass, trying the pull Allison's disappearing arms out of the mirror. The skin was stretched, like it was melting. 

They fell to the ground as Allison's legs fell from under her, her feet being pulled in now too. 

Matt babbled incoherently. Neil moved to his side, grabbing Allison's shoulders and pulling. 

It didn't matter. The mirror pulled her in, dragging the three across the room as Allison disappeared. 

She was screaming, her shrieks peircing Neil's ears. 

Neil grabbed fruitlessly at her hair. It slipped from his fingers and Allison was gone. 

The room rang with silence. Neil knew he wasn't breathing. It didn't sound like Matt was either. 

They just got her back and now she's gone again. 

"Find her." Neil stood. "We need to find her."

Matt growled and punched the mirror. It shattered, glass raining down around them. 

"Matt, what the-!" Neil stopped. The glass settled like glitter around them. Matt's knuckles, torn and ragged, dripped blood on the floor. 

There was a hallway behind the mirror. It was made of linoleum, flickering flourescent lights glowing off the bleached white tiles. 

"Fuck." Matt looked at Neil. "Horror movie cliche." 

They followed the hallway anyway. Flames of unease licked at Neil's ankles. Turn around, turn around, turnaroundturnaroundturnaround. 

Matt jumped. Neil flinched, glaring at him. Matt jumped down the hall, one-two-three jumps. 

"I swear to god if possession is a thing here, I will-" 

Matt turned, "There's no sound." He jumped again. 

The source of Neil's unease, part of it anyway. There was no sound in here. The lights didn't buzz and tick, their steps made no noise, not even their breathing was audible. 

Neil ignored the new information and they continued down the hall. 

The lights got brighter the further they moved. The floor blinding to look at, the walls throwing reflected lights in their faces. 

Neil's eyes were squinted so tightly shut that he ran into Matt's back when Matt stopped in front of a metal door. 

"I don't like not having options," Neil admitted. 

Matt grunted in reply. The door slid easily to the side, disappearing into a crevice in the wall. 

They entered a lab, so cold Neil could see his breath. The lights were off; the only illumination coming from glowing blue cylindrical tubes around the edges and a glass box in the center, filled with red light. 

"I didn't expect Allison to fear science," Matt quipped. Neil could hear his apprehension. 

Neil moved around the room, bile rising in his throat. "Matt," he called, his voice hoarse. He closed his eyes, reminding himself where he was. It wasn't a comforting thought but it kept him in the present, not the past. 

The tubes held various body parts, suspended in blue gel. Legs, feet, arms, fingers. 

Matt clutched hard at Neil's arm. He stood in front of a shelf with large preservative jars. They were filled with heads. 

Neil froze. Matt stumbled. He backed into the glass box in the center of the room, spinning and bracing his hands on the surface, struggling to catch his breath. 

Yes, Neil thought, that's a proper reaction. 

And then Matt screamed. It took Neil several second to realize Matt was screaming words, a name. Allison. 

She laid in the glass table. Or rather, Neil saw when he got closer, her head did. Neil was going to scream, to cry, to lose his mind. 

Her head was suspended in clear fluid, detached expertly from her body at the bottom of her neck. Her spine stretched out from the muscles and skin layers visible in her neck, cords of nerves spanning out into the vaguest shape of a human body. 

Matt retched in the corner, his eyes squeezed shut. 

If you die in the game, you die in real life. 

One of you probably won't make it. 

Neil was going to kill the Shadow Man. 

He looked at Allison, only her face; pretend the rest is okay. Her face looked different, in death. Her cheekbones seemed sharper, her hair thicker and blonder. Her eyes - her eyes were green and looking at him. They'd been closed before. They'd been brown before. 

"She's-" Neil choked, nails scratching at the glass. "She's alive. Matt! Help me!" 

Matt, face pale and sweaty, pulled on the top of the glass box. A coffin, his mind supplied. It wouldn't budge.

Matt retched again at the sight of Allison's not-body. 

Her eyes blinked quickly, jumping from Matt to Neil and back again. The panic was clear on her face. Her mouth opened and closed like fish, silent and useless. Neil wondered if Allison knew that state she was in, he figured she did. 

Neil felt tears sting his eyes. Matt dragged him away. 

"No!" Neil screamed, fighting against his best friend as he was pulled away from Allison. 

Matt grabbed his face. "She needs to calm down," Matt sobbed. 

"We need to save her!" Neil argued. 

"She needs to win. So she has to calm down. That's how I won, that's how we win," Matt nodded, working it through his head. 

"I know," Neil hissed. "So we need to save her. Get her out!" 

"She won't calm down if we keep panicking," Matt breathed slowly, forcibly calming himself. "Us first, so we can help her." 

Neil bit his lip. Matt was right. They had to be in control to help her. When they were as calm as they could get, which didn't say much, they turned back to their friend. 

Things had changed again. Shards of bone had appeared between the nerve tracks, expanding and hardening. As they watched, a skeletal structure formed, layers of muscles beginning to layer on top. They watched in horror as Allison's body reformed. Neil controlled his features, focusing on Allison's eyes and ignoring the difference in color. 

"If we wait till she has a body again, we can break the glass and escape. Run away." Neil said to Matt, not looking from Allison. She stared desperately back at him; she seemed calmer now, no longer in a blind panic. 

Neil talked to her. He didn't know if she could hear him, but he reminded her of the times she kidnapped him for shopping. Their matching halloween costumes the year Seth and she had broken up a week before the biggest college party. Getting drunk on wine coolers at Christmas and decorating the tree in garish neon orange ornaments. How she kissed him on New Years because neither of them had someone and Allison refused to not participate in the tradition and Neil never had. Talking about her growing crush on Renee, talking about his lack of feelings for anyone ever and what that meant about him. Talking and talking and talking - to calm himself as much as her. 

"Neil," Matt whispered. 

He glanced up, Allison's new body was complete. A fresh layer of skin sewing itself together over muscle and tendon. 

"Hold on," Matt told Allison. "We're getting you out." 

They tore the office to shreds, looking for something to break the glass. There wasn't much, medical tools and technical supplies. They settled for a surgical hammer and a bone saw. 

They moved away from Allison's face, not wanting the shattering glass to hurt her. It took forever, the glass was strong and not prone to breaking. They finally managed a crack, working on that till it spread and shattered. 

They broke the glass, piece by piece, until the top was gone. 

They each grabbed one of Allison's arms, helping her sit up. She coughed up fluid and gasped for air. Her laughter filled the room, hysterical and crazed. 

She sat up, shaking. Matt helped her off the table. 

"Allison, are you okay?" Matt asked, helping her stand on new legs. "...what the fu....?" 

Allison had always been taller than Neil, especially in the five inch heels she always insisted on wearing. She wasn't wearing heels now, though. She wasn't wearing anything. 

"...the fuck...?" Matt muttered. Neil stared. 

They had changed her, Neil realized. Allison wasn't shy, she'd changed in front of him hundreds of times over the years. She didn't look like her. Not at all. 

Allison looked down at herself, considering. He watched her cross slowly to the lone full length mirror in the operating room. 

She was. . . Different. Wrong. 

Her cheekbones were sharper. Her eyes bigger and green instead of brown. Neil had noticed that before, but that wasn't all. 

Thin strands of gold shimmered in place of her hair. Her skin was darker, tanned more than Allison had ever been capable of getting, and blemishless. Her neck was unnaturally long and swan-like, her lips fuller and blood red. Thick, long lashes weighed down her eyes. And that was just her face. 

Her legs were longer, stretching disproportionatly from her torso. Her stomach was so flat it concaved. Her hips bones jutting painfully against her skin. Her breasts were overly large, emphasizing the nonexistent waist. She had no body hair. 

Allison put her hands on her hips, her fingers touching at her belly button and her thumbs connected at her spine. She retched violently. 

"No. Nononono," she cried. "I don't want this. Not anymore."

"There you are," a voice cooed behind them. There stood Allison's parents, Neil knew it was them. It had to be. He'd seen enough pictures, but even so Allison's response would've given it away. She straightened, her hands dropping from her waist. A keening growl emitted from her throat. 

"You're perfect now," her father said. He smiled. Her mother grinned. 

Allison swung a punch at them and Neil realized the high pitched ringing in his ears was Allison's screaming. 

Matt caught her wrist, whispering that she needed to calm down. She had to conquer the fear. 

"They made me not me!" Allison screamed at her parents. They stared proudly back. 

"You'll thank us someday, Alli." Her mother promised. "I told you, you could be perfect if you just tried a little harder."

Allison clenched her fists, closed her eyes. Then she turned to the mirror again. She wiped her tears, closing her eyes. "They don't matter. They aren't here." She opened her eyes to her new reflection. Her gaze was sad and angry. 

"You'll die alone," her reflection told her. Neil flinched back, startled. 

"I'll die as me," Allison answered softly. 

Allison stared down the mirror, a look Neil had seen before. Everytime Allison looked in a mirror, that look would cross her face. Just for a second. A reminder. 

Her parents closed in on either side of her, the other Allison stepping closer inside the mirror. They stared her down, and she stared right back. Her eyes turned hazel, then coffee brown. 

And mirror shattered, revealing a door. Allison collapsed in front of it. Neil lunged, Matt right behind him. They picked her up and shoved Allison through. 

The plush carpet burned Neil's hands as he skidded across it. Matt and Allison fell next to him. Allison heaving. She hauled herself to her feet, hands flying over her hair and body. She wore her designer clothes again, though her make up was smudged and her hair a mess.

She sobbed, "oh thank god." She covered her face in her hands. "Thank god." 

Neil collapsed back against the wall. He closed his eyes. He breathed, locking away the images on body parts and a not right Allison into the far recesses of his kind. Panic later.

He listened to Allison's quiet, crazed giggles as she reoriented herself again. Matt hugged her hard. 

"Let's take a minute." Neil said. 

The wall behind him collapsed, Neil fell backwards. 

Neil's arms and legs circled, grasping for something to hold. "What the-" 

"Gotta admit," Andrew said from next to him. They were in plush leather chairs, a small armrest between them. "That one surprised me. She's tougher than she looks. Self-centered and vain, but tough." 

Neil shifted, looking around. A small window behind Andrew revealed clouds and blue, blue sky. The room was cylindrical and long. An airplane, then.

Neil punched Andrew in the face. Andrew laughed as he fell backwards, his head hitting the window behind him. He spit blood into the whiskey glass on the table in front of them and then shoved the glass off the table. 

"With your face flushed red like that, you look a porcelain doll. Boys shouldn't be that pretty." 

Neil suppressed the urge to punch Andrew again. 

"You're a bastard." Neil consciously worked to unclench his fists. He pulled out his knife, watching Andrew's eyes as they followed the knife Neil spun in his hand. 

"And why's that?" Andrew finally asked when Neil didn't continue. Andrew's hands were clenched on the armrest. In anger? Well, Neil had punched him. He should be more worried about, he knew, since they were trapped in Andrew's mansion of hell.

"Playing with our fears is one thing." Neil's teeth were gritted, Allison's pale and not-right face flashing through his mind. Her emaciated body, and restructured face. "But forcing them suffer through their past humiliations, shaming them, blaming them. You have no right." 

"You were warned. Secrets revealed." 

"Fuck you!" 

"Worried about something in your past that might come to life?" Andrew's look was considering. "Shame is far more powerful than fear could ever be. Fears are ephemeral, a bullet through your body. Shame brands your soul." 

Neil's rage left. He knew the Shadow Man didn't care how they suffered. He fell back into his chair, knife spinning between his fingers.

Andrew watched Neil. Strangely, Neil didn't feel as threatened this time. 

"How about this. I offer a truth to you. You offer one to me." 

Neil hesitated. Gifts were dangerous, they had strings attached. Neil was still waiting for the price of the knife. But this? An exchange, a deal. No mystery or waiting debt. He thought of his friends. Anything he could learn from the Shadow Man would help him win this game and get his friends out. He nodded.

Andrew pointed at him. Neil first. 

"How do you make the fears play out? We drew them, I know. But you bring them to life in a lot more detail than we could draw. How?" Neil needed to know how Andrew thought, it was the key to overcoming the fear. 

Andrew laughed, "I don't. The house does. It's a haunted house. I'm only here to make sure the game goes on. An. . . incentive, if you will, to play. A watcher. A referee." 

Neil's body was glacial. Andrew didn't control the game? Didn't choose the fears? Neil was going to be sick. A man he could fight. But a sentient house? Despite everything that had happened tonight, Neil found that the hardest to grasp. 

A jab to his face brought him back. Andrew pressed hard on Neil's cheek, turning his face back to Andrew. Neil focused on golden eyes. 

"Everyone else is panicking. Or close to it. But not you, not the same way. Why aren't you as scared? This is a house of horrors after all." 

Neil felt the lie float up his throat, he choked on it. A truth for a truth. If he lied, he broke the deal, he didn't know what would happen if he broke it. It didn't matter. He didn't want to lie. 

"I grew up in a horror house," Neil confessed. "I lived in fear every day for the first ten years of my life. This isn't much different." 

Andrew nodded once, considering. Neil noticed the tightness around Andrew's eyes. He wondered if running the game was as taxing as playing it. He shoved his sympathy aside, the Shadow Man didn't deserve it. 

"What do you want this time?" Neil asked. Andrew wasn't here for no reason. 

"I got bored." 

Andrew was lying. There must be something else. 

"Yeah. Watching us suffer and panic must be so dull for you. Maybe you should go find someone else to play with." 

Andrew hummed. "Hard pass." 

"Why me?" Neil asked. 

Andrew rose an eyebrow. 

"Why are you so interested in me." 

"What makes you think I am?" Andrew turned his head, lazy and arrogant. The sunset from the window lit his hair to molten bronze, made his eyes flash crimson. 

"Well, unless you keep getting the others isolated just to talk to them." Neil pouted, "and here I thought I was special." 

Andrew sighed, exasperated. "You should know why by now. If you had half a brain, you'd figure it out."

Neil stayed silent. He didn't like riddles. 

Andrew continued. "I'll figure you out. I always win." 

"I'm not a fucking puzzle." 

"No," agreed Andrew. "Your better. Your edges are rougher, harder to piece together. I'll still figure out where you fit." 

"Where I fit?" 

Andrew's grin changed, something feral in his smile, something .... playful, perhaps, in his eyes. He leaned closer, his breath smelled of whiskey. "Oh, yes. Where you fit next to me. How you fit together with me." 

Neil frowned, confused. He was missing something. This conversation was going nothing like the last. 

Andrew laughed, manic and mocking. Alarm bells rang from somewhere near the front of the plane. Turbulence shook their seats. 

Andrew looked only at Neil. "Time to go." He grinned, savage. 

And Neil was back in the hallway, sitting on plush carpet. 

Neil looked back to his friends, none the wiser of what had just occurred. Neil opened his mouth to tell them, they should know. They were all in this game. The Shadow Man was a concern and a threat to all of them. 

A door slammed shut somewhere down the hall. The three of them sprung to there feet. Neil held his knife ready. Matt shifted to his fighters stance. Allison held her stilettos in her hand, five inch heel sticking out in warning. 

A steady banging echoed down the hall. 

"One of those monster could've gotten free of the door," Neil said quietly, gripping his knife. 

Matt sounded agreement, but Allison shook her head. She'd finger-combed her hair and smudged what remain of her eyeliner stylistically around her eyes. 

"It could be one of us," she argued. 

Neil wanted his friends back more than anything, but running toward a potential man-eating monster seemed like a bad idea, even for him. 

Matt, loyal to the core, made Neil's discision. He took off down the hall. Neil catalogued this for later reference against Matt's lecture on his dangerous impulsiveness. 

The banging had seemed close by, but the hallways echoed spectacularly and they walked for endless minutes, following the sound. 

Finally, they heard a muffled grunt and a hissed voice, "shit! This is ridiculous!" 

They all froze, staring at each other. Did you hear that? Is that- 

"Renee!" Allison yelled. 

Silence, then "Allison?!" 

They took off at a sprint, rounding corner after corner with no regard to safety. Finally, there, Renee stood in front of a solid black wood door, the area around the handle splintered and chipping. 

Renee herself wasn't in much better shape. Her clothes were torn and blood splattered, crimson splashes smeared on her face as though she had tried to wipe it off. Matt grabbed her into hug regardless, picking her off the ground. 

"I'm so glad you're okay!" He cheered. Renee smiled at him, hugging him back just as hard. Allison went next, asking what happened. 

Renee loosed a breath, "My nightmare, I guess. I won." She looked over them. "You guys?" 

Matt grimaced, "Won. Barely. Probably wouldn't have without Neil." 

Allison feigned nonchalance. "Won, of course." At Renee's piercing look, Allison changed the subject. "Are you okay?" 

Renee looked down at her blood spattered clothes. "No, but I will be. You?"

Allison nodded. Matt, too. 

"I haven't faced mine yet," Neil admitted. "So I guess I'm next." 

Renee turned to the all black door. "No. Kevin is." She pointed to the 2 carved into the wood. "I tried opening it. I couldn't." As if to prove it, she realed back and kicked the door again, wood splintered and the handle shook but the door held. 

Matt moved next to her. "Both of us." The synchronized their kicks. Matt kicking just above the handle, Renee just below. 

It took several tries before the door snapped, swinging in. Almost as suddenly, the door swung back closed, slamming into the frame. The force shattered the hinges, throwing the door into Renee is it exploded into the hallway. A wave of sand shot from the door on a gust of wind, stinging Neil's eyes and shredding his skin. He grabbed at Allison, yanking her back from the door. They coughed sand, eyes squeezed shut. 

The wind slowed to a stop. Neil rose from his crouch over Allison, looking for the others. Matt was lifting the door off Renee, both of them covered in black sand. It spilled from the doorway, blown into the darkness of the hallway. The door stood open. 

Neil and Renee shared a look, agreeing. Renee went in first, cautious and slow. Neil followed last, watching their backs. 

It wasn't a room. It was a vast desert, stretching for miles and miles. Nothing existed but for glittering black sand and a star-studded black sky. A blood red moon light the world in ruby. 

Neil spent his senior year in Arizona. In the fall, everyone had talked about the blood moon, the harvest moon. How it would shine bright red when it rose. Neil had risked being spotted to stay outside and see it. He'd been massively disappointed. It wasn't that the moon wasn't red, it was. Mostly. It was red-tinted orange that barely lit the sky around it. He remembered thinking it would have been impressive without all the hype. 

But this moon, this was a blood moon. Cherry red and glowing rings of crimson stretching out from it. It lit his spine on fire like a line of matches. 

The wind screamed around him, pulling at his clothes, chaffing sand against his skin. 

"How are we supposed to find Kevin?" Allison asked. "There's hundreds of miles here!" 

Renee looked around, never focusing on one thing too long. Neil was grateful for her vigilance. 

"We need to cover as much ground as possible," Neil called over the wind. It really did sound like screaming. 

"I know you are not suggesting we split up," Matt yelled back. Neil only caught half the words, but he knew his best friend well. 

"We need to hurry," Neil reasoned. "We're running out of time!" 

Renee's head snapped around to look at him. They hadn't taken the time to tell her about Neil's first conversation with the Shadow Man. 

They didn't have to explain or argue. Renee suggested splitting into twos. Matt and Allison would search in one direction, Neil and Renee in the other. They'd walk for ten minutes and of they find anything they'd turn directly around and come back.

Neil explained his conversation with the Shadow Man, going so far as to tell her his name is Andrew which he'd kept from everyone else. She seemed interested in him, but not so afraid. 

In return, she told him what happened to her since she disappeared from the parlor. She'd woken up in the hallway like the rest of them and wandered until she found a door. She'd gone inside and faced her nightmare, about which she'd only say she made it through and would be okay. She hadn't wandered long after that before seeing Kevin in the hall, just in time for him to disappear behind the door. She'd tried to open it and couldn't, so she'd tried busying it down. That's when they found her. 

Neil recapped their night. Renee accepted his story with no comment or expression. Her mind was spinning to figure this all out, to survive. Just like Neil's. He wondered again at her story, all he knew was it was gruesome and she used to be in a gang. He wouldn't ask her. She wouldn't ask him. 

After a few minutes of walking, a city appeared in the distance. Close enough they should have been able to see it from where they came through the door. 

"I hate this fucking place," Neil said. Now they were separated and for no reason. 

He and Renee continued into the city. It was upscale and wealthy, roads of fresh tar and marble mansions. Everything was clean and shining, despite the red darkness and sand. 

Voices sounded in the distance, the slapping of millions of feet on the ground. They followed the noise, rounding a corner to a central square and were instantly sucked into a crowd of millions. The cacophony amplified tenfold. Neil instinctively reached for Renee, keeping hold of her hand as the crowd tried to tear them apart. He pulled out his knife, watched Renee eye it. She didn't ask, her hands were balled into fists. 

She fought through the crowd with elbows and knees, dragging Neil behind her. He followed, unsure what her plan was but sure she had one. 

She took them to the center of the crowd, a fountain standing tall and proud in the square. Neil recognized it from a place he'd run through as a teen. Ireland, he thought, from a city in Ireland. 

They climbed on to the fountain, using it to boost them above the crowd to search for Kevin. 

People moved in all directions, leisurely and loud. They never stopped talking, speaking to everyone they passed. 

"We're never going to find in this crowd!" Neil shouted to Renee. He didn't understand. This was Kevin's fear? He loved cities and people, never wanted to be the center of attention, but always wanted to be in the group. Kevin's mother had been Irish and took him there every summer until her death. Kevin adored her. The Irish cityscape didn't make sense as a fear. 

Movement behind Renee caught his attention, a flash of speed. He looked. 

Kevin was running through the crowd, from one person to another. As Neil watched he grabbed a man's arm, his hand falling right through him. Kevin's mouth opened on a wail and he yelled something in a woman's face. She walked through him without a blink. 

It was like he didn't exist. 

Renee had noticed his aytention and followed it to Kevin. She yelled for him, but the crowd was too loud. He couldn't hear. Kevin moved through the crowd, further and further away from them.  
They set off after him. Kevin had years of various sports teams on his side. He was fast and agile. Neil was faster, Renee more agile. But Kevin was also panicking, all alone in a crowd of people. They couldn't catch him. 

He sprinted around a corner in time to see Kevin enter a building. 

Renee caught up to him. "I'll go around back." 

Neil went in the front. It was a town house, three story and narrow. Kevin was in the kitchen, on his knees. In front of him sat a woman with long dark hair and green eyes. She looked just like Kevin. Or, Neil supposed, he looked like her. Kayleigh Day. 

"Look at me!" Kevin was saying to her. "Please! I'm right here! Mother, please, it's me." 

But she paid him no mind, turning instead towards the stairs. A man came down, grey-brown hair and tattoos peaking out of his shirt sleeves. 

David Wymack, Neil remembered. He'd coached Kevin's little league sports team and later been his history teacher in high school. Kevin had stayed in contact with him. They got along well and Kevin couldn't give up someone willing to talk about his two obsessions: sports and history. 

Kevin had told him, drunk one night, that Wymack had known his mother in college, they'd dated. Kevin didn't know if Wymack knew who he was. 

Wymack entered the kitchen, walking past Kevin who rose from the floor. His mother had disappeared from the table. 

"Wymack?" Kevin asked. He followed his coach through the kitchen. Wymack grabbed a beer, not hearing Kevin or seeing him. 

Kevin's hand trembled as he reached for his shoulder. "Please," he begged. "Dad." 

Neil's mind skipped, a record scratch. He heard Renee gasp. Dad? They met eyes. Wymack was Kevin's dad? 

Kevin heard Renee's gasp and spun. Relief filled his face at the sight of them. 

"You can see me?" He crossed the room in three strides, clutching at Neil's shirt. 

Neil started respond when glass shattered against the wall next to his head. He dove for cover on autopilot. Kevin jumping and turning on Wymack. He'd thrown his beer bottle against the wall. 

"You just don't stop, do you?" Wymack hissed. "I guess there's something to be said for determination." 

Kevin went pale. "I - I don't under-"

"I knew, you idiot!" Wymack yelled. He gripped the edge of the counter, leaning toward Kevin. "I'm not an idiot. I can count. I always knew you were my son." 

Kevin turned in on himself, arms crossing over his chest, defensive and protective at once. "You never said-" 

"Well of course not. Why would I? I never wanted a son. Even if I did, why the fuck would I want you as son? Annoying and know-it-all, cowardly and an alcoholic who drowns your insecurities in a vodka bottle." 

Kevin listened in silence, solemn and accepting. He didn't look like breaking. He looked broken. 

"It's not real, Kevin," Renee reminded him. "It's not real." 

It's as real as anything else. 

It's real to Kevin. 

"Your pathetic." Wymack walked around the countered. He glanced at Kevin, then away as though disgusted. "I wouldn't claim you even for a tax break."

Renee moved to stand in front of Kevin. "Wymack loves you, Kevin. Even not knowing he's your father. This isn't him. You know that. He wouldn't say this. You know that. You know that." 

Kevin sat on the floor, knees to his chest. 

"What's the worst thing Wymack has ever said to you?" 

Kevin picked at the hole in his jeans. He was watching Wymack take pictures off the wall. Photos with Kevin. Team pictures, class photos, a few candids. Anything Kevin appeared in. 

"He told me once that I was single-minded and insensitive." 

Neil snorted. Kevin glared at him, opening his mouth to rebuke.

The pantry door glided open. The hallway stretched beyond it. 

"Of course," Neil laughed. "Only Kevin would conquer his fear through self-righteous indignation at an insult." 

"For the love of-" Renee grabbed Kevin shoving him at the door. "Go!" 

Neil followed. Renee came last, slamming the door behind her. 

"You should be more sympathetic," Kevin complained. 

"You should be more sensitive," Neil replied. 

A door slamming down the hall, brought them to silence. Matt and Allison were down the hall, shedding black sand. 

Matt cheered when he saw Kevin. He dragged him into a hug. "We're one person closer to getting my girlfriend back!" 

Kevin lost his smile, grumbling about the lack of respect as he shoved away from Matt. 

Allison bumped her shoulder against Kevin's. 

"Can we talk about Wymack being Kevin's dad?" Neil asked. "Is that serious?"

Allison gawked at Kevin. 

"Hold up," Matt held up a hand. "Say that again?" 

Kevin shifted in his feet, looking at the ground. "It doesn't matter," he mumbled. 

Renee slapped the back of Neil's head. She shoved them along, staying away Kevin's side and between him and them. 

They wandered once more through the halls, looking for another door or Dan or Seth. 

Neil knew his fearscape was coming. He hoped he wasn't next. He didn't get it, everyone else faced their fear as they found them. He should have been first, or maybe second. The Shadow Man was saving Neil's fearscape. Neil feared his fear. What would he face? 

A staircase appeared out of the dark. Old and wooden. It looked about the fall, like a leaf would knock it down. 

"Level up." Renee gazed into the darkness above. 

"Cause it's been so easy so far," Matt agreed. 

"Well, I have been bored." Allison rapped get nails on the railing. 

"Don't antagonize the fear demon, please," Kevin requested. 

Neil gripped his knife and ascended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! I'm not very happy with how Kevin's fearscape turned out and I rewrote Allison's several times. But oh well, it is what it is. 
> 
>  
> 
> I'll try to update soon. We're almost done!!


	4. Afraid to Live, Live to Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Game continues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the update took a little while! Life happens. I plan for the last chapter to be up before my next semester starts.

Don't antagonize the fear demon Kevin had said. Neil hated it when Kevin was right. 

The second floor had been different from the first. These walls were painted, red. Neil thought it would hide bloodstains well. Instead of carpet there were black wood floors. They walked. The game would come to them. 

Neil bumped shoulders with Kevin, speaking in French. "Are you going to tell him?" 

"Hmm?" 

"Wymack. Are you going tell him that he's-"

Kevin's hand slammed over his mouth, eyes wide. "SHUT UP!" 

Matt glanced back at them, dismissed them. Their arguements were par for course by now and the others tended to stay out of it unless it got physical. 

"How do you know that's even real. Maybe I just wish he was." Kevin was panicking, his face pale. 

"Your fearscape wouldn't focus on a lie. Renee and I were there, remember? There's no faking that." 

Kevin glanced toward the others. 

"They won't tell. But you should." 

Kevin grunted, shoving his hands in his pockets. Neil let it go. 

The hallways weren't as long either, but they branched and turned far more frequently.

Neil and Renee had silently slipped into their roles. Every corner they took, they rounded in formation. One forward, one back, eyes everywhere, watching each other's backs. Neil knew it was affecting him, doning the mask of his past. He feared the same was happening to Renee. She spoke less, shadows gathering in her eyes. 

They entered a small circular foyer, hallways branching off in five directions. 

"What now?" Allison asked. She glanced down each hallway, trying to see any difference between them or where they led. They were all dark and identical. 

"Draw straws?" Matt suggested. "Shortest straw picks which death hallway we take." 

Neil stumbled into Kevin. "What the fu-" 

Renee tripped back, bumping into the wall. It made her stumble worse and she fell to the floor. 

The floor was spinning, maybe the walls too but it was hard to tell. The center rose up, splintering the floor into five triangular pieces. 

Neil slid back as the floor inclined, wood splintering his hands as he scrambled for purchase. 

The floor spun faster. He could hear his friends screaming, calling for each other. Wind tore at his clothes, carried his voice away. 

The floor slammed up, throwing him down a hallway. He landed hard, his arm screaming as his full weight landed on it. Only years worth of training kept him from stabbing himself on the knife he still held. 

He oriented himself as he dragged to his feet. Silver light peirced his eyes, shining from several spots in a velvet black sky. It may not have been that bright, except it reflected off enormous silver spires that surrounded him. They rose up from the ground, bent and turned in a thousand different direction. Needles protruded from them, sharp and cutting. 

He knew better than to just stand around. It wasn't easy to move. The silver spires were close together, like a forest of deadly metal spikes. The needles coming off of them caught on his clothes. After a few steps he was cursing his baggy clothes. Not that he'd ever wear anything else.

A needle caught his sleeve, tearing a wide hole in his shoulder and scratching his skin. A thin line of blood rose up. He cursed. His arms and legs already had a dozen similar lacerations. 

He heard a scream, terrified and echoing. Who? Who was it? 

He moved faster, ignoring the sting of needles on his skin. Another scream. 

Faster. Faster, faster. Fasterfasterfaster- 

The ground gave way and he dropped, hands flailing for anything to grab. 

When he finally caught something, he was dangling a foot or two below a ridge. The metal under his hand was painfully cold. He risked a glance down. 

He hung over a canyon, several stories deep and filled at the bottom with metallic stalagmites. He'd be impaled if he fell. And if you die in the game... he looked away, back up to the ridge. 

He needed to climb. There wasn't much to hold on to. He dug his fingers into the cliff face, lifting himself up by the tips of his fingers. He felt his eyes prick with tears at the pain. Inch by inch he climbed up by his finger tips. 

With his muscles screaming, he got one hand on the ledge. He couldn't breath by the time he got both elbows over the ledge, digging into the ground to hold him. His feet skidded over the cliff, breath huffing out in bursts of white. When did it get this cold?

A flash of gold in the silver forest caught his attention, golden eyes met his. 

"Need some help?" Andrew reclined against a metal spire, several feet from him. 

Neil was going to rip his tongue out. 

"Fuck you." 

"You'd have to ask nicely first." 

A scream sounded again, seeming closer this time. It was followed by another shout, clearly words though he couldn't understand them. He needed to get to them.

He tried to pull himself up, his muscles shook and cleched. He stopped trying, not wanting to risk his muscles giving out entirely. 

Andrew's voice was less mocking than it had been. "This isn't your fear. You don't have to die for it. Let me help." 

"Like you actually would?" Neil's foot slipped on the branch he was using for leverage, the point stabbing into his ankle. "Fuck!" He hissed vehemently. 

"I would. I'm invested in this game. It'd be a shame for it to end too soon." He turned to face Neil, arms crossed.

"You're sick." 

"Perhaps. Not a fan of medication." 

Neil wondered how someone so small could still seem so large. He had no doubt Andrew could pull him over if he wanted to. But did he trust Andrew not to push him over instead?

"Fine." 

Silence. Andrew rose an eyebrow. 

"Help me." 

"Say, 'I need your help, oh powerful Shadow Man. I accept your aid in anyway necessary to save my life!" 

Neil growled. "Fuck you." He grudlingly repeated Andrew. 

He was right. Andrew lifted him like it was nothing. He laid down on the edge, and reached over. Grabbing Neil's belt loops and bodily dragging him up. He heard Andrew's breath rush out of him when Neil landed on him. Andrew's heart was racing. 

Huh, Neil thought, who knew fear demons needed to breathe. 

He shoved off, staring at the Shadow Man. Andrew was pale and he moved quickly back from the edge. His flickered over the skyscraper-high drop, then settled on Neil. 

He remembered how tense Andrew had been on the plane. How far away he'd sat until Neil asked for help. 

"Are you- are you afraid of heights?" 

Andrew looked back into the needle forest. 

"Oh my god," Neil laughed. "Oh my god! That's fucking hilarious. A fear demon who's afraid?!" Neil could not help the riotous laughter that escaped, part amusement, part hysteria. 

Andrew's eyes turned cold. "We're all afraid of something, aren't we?" 

A third scream sounded, drying up Neil's laughter. He spun, trying to pin point the sound. Like last time, another sound followed. Unlike last time, it wasn't shouts or human noises. 

The howl was loud and and picked up by a dozen other canines. It faded to a bass rumbled growl. 

Neil looked back at Andrew only to find the Shadow Man had disappeared. 

Neil took off at a run, hands held in front of his face to avoid needles and eyes on the ground to avoid cliffs. 

The howls and screaming grew more frequent. More importantly, they grew closer. 

He caught a glimpse of pastel colored hair to his left. Renee. Thank god. She was his best option if this turned into a fight. 

"Seth!" Allison's voice was pitched and panicked. "Seth!" 

The growls turned to barks, vicious and territorial. 

He finally saw Seth. He'd climbed on the needled spires and was hanging there. A pack of dogs, twice their normal size, barked at the base. Saliva dripped from their mouths, their eyes black as coal. Seth was bleeding from several dozen areas. Neil couldn't tell if they were bites from the dogs or scratches from the needles. 

Seth was shaking and covered in sweat. He kept slipping on the metal branches. 

Allison screamed for him again, Matt holding her back. The dogs didn't seem to care about them at all. Matt's shirt was cut nearly in two across the front, a gash on his chest dripping blood. Allison had a cut on her head, blood dying her blonde hair red. Kevin stood behind them with a hundred shallow cuts. 

"What do we do?" Neil asked, his voice a whisper. He turned to Renee, speaking louder. "Do we attack the dogs?" 

The dogs surged as one toward the spire, shaking it enough that Seth slipped down a little more. He screamed. 

One of the dogs lunged, grabbing on to Seth's leg. Allison surged forward, Matt only just managing to catch her by the wrist. Kevin shot forward to help pull her back. The amount of cuts and blood on all them made their skin slick and Allison hard to hold.

"It's okay, Seth!" Allison yelled. "It's going to be okay. Just breathe. Breathe, Seth! It's not real. You have to face it!" 

Blood drenched his pant legs from where the dog bit him. Seth didn't seem to hear Allison at all. He scrambled for branches, trying to climb higher. 

Neil threw his knife. It hit the dog square in the back. It released Seth, falling to the ground. Seth fought harder, tears streaming down his face. 

Allison was still yelling at him, trying to get through his panic. Matt had joined her. 

Renee grabbed Neil's arm. "Climb the spire next to him." She shoved at Neil, grabbing at the branches to climb up herself. "We can grab him and pull him over. Maybe if we can get to him he'll calm down." 

She started to climb when Matt and Allison screamed. No words this time, just pure panic. Neil spun, seeing Renee drop to the ground next to him. 

Seth had slipped again, one hand coming free. He screamed as he fell; they all did. 

The dogs lunged and blood sprayed. Neil's world slowed. 

The dogs' growls cut off into tearing flesh.

Seth's screams cut off into a gurgle. 

Allison's screams cut off into a sob. 

The ground turned red. 

One of you won't make it. I can tell you right now, one of you won't make it. 

The sound of screams and tearing flesh faded. Matt had his eyes closed, but his grip on Allison didn't waver. Kevin had let go though, and was off puking next to a needle tree. 

Renee's hold on Neil was painfully tight. He couldn't judge, his hold on her was just as tight. 

The dogs disbanded, circling the pool of blood. One laid down in the middle, licking the blood off the ground. His bones were strikingly obvious against the silver trees and blood. Neil asently noted two dogs playing tug of war with a femur. 

"We need to run," Renee whispered, her eyes were red and tears slid down her face but she was focused. "Now." 

Neil made his way to his friends, Renee close behind. She dropped to her knees next to Allison, who grabbed onto her like a life raft. 

Neil didn't know what to do. He wasn't great with comfort. Still, he didn't pull away when Matt grabbed him into a hug. He awkwardly pat his friend's back. 

"Guys," Kevin voice was hoarse from puking. "Guys!" 

Neil followed his sightline, watching as the dogs looked up. They spread out, hair standing on end. 

"Fuck," he shoved away from Matt, grabbing on to him and Kevin. "Run!" 

He shoved them both forward, running after them. He heard footsteps behind him, glancing back long enough to see Renee forcing Allison in front of her. 

The dogs chased. Neil watched fur flash next to them, there and then gone in the silver trees. Needles slashed his face, his arms. 

Renee cursed behind him. He'd heard her curse more tonight than he ever had. 

"Faster, please!" She called ahead. 

Neil shoved against Matt's back. 

"A door!" Kevin yelled, finding another burst of speed. He slammed into the door, fumbling against the handle. 

"Open!" Matt shoved against the door, a breathless sob escaping his mouth. 

"In!" Neil gasped. "It opens in!" 

Neil backed into Allison, grabbing at her. Kevin got the door open and Neil shoved Allison through. Kevin followed Neil through; Matt shoved Renee in and pulled the door closed behind him. The door shook as the dogs slammed into it, growls echoing through the wood. 

Neil collapsed against the ground, his heart hammering painfully in his chest. 

Allison laid half across Renee's lap. She wasn't sobbing anymore but tears streamed steadily down her face. Kevin sat next to them. He looked uncomfortable, but he still reached out a hand and held Allison's. 

Matt still clutched the door handle, holding it closed as it rattled against the rabid dogs. His eyes when he looked at Neil were guilty.

"I need to find Dan," his voice shook. "I have to- what if she's- we have to-" he choked off in a sob. 

"We need to go." Neil crawled over to Allison. "We need to go. We can't die here too." 

"Seth is dead!" Allison yelled, lashing a fist out at him. He dodged easily, catching her hands. 

He held her gaze. He needed to be strong, to lead, to get them out. "Seth would want to win. We need to win. For him." 

Her jaw clenched in anger. "How dare you. How dare you use him against me. You didn't even like him!" 

She was right. Neil hated Seth most of the time, barely tolerated him the rest. But it wasn't a lie when he told her that Seth didn't deserve that and he wished he could have saved him. That he was sorry. 

Renee dragged her away, whispering to her. 

Neil pulled Matt up. "We're going to find her. She's not going to die here." 

Matt nodded, his grip tight on Neil. "Do you think he's still alive? Like, outside the game?" 

Neil remembered then. The others had disappeared before Andrew had told him. 

If you die in the game, you die in real life too. 

"Yeah," he told Matt. "Maybe." 

●●●●●●●

No one spoke for a long time after that. What do you even say? Neil didn't have a clue. His experience with responding to death was usually a "good riddance" and a shovel full of dirt. 

A clocked chimed in the distance and Neil realized he hadn't heard one in a while. He counted the hours. 

No, that couldn't be right. He glanced over to Matt, saw his own panic reflected there. 

"That can't be right," Matt said. "There's no way it's been that long." 

Renee looked grim. "We have three hours left." 

"We still need to find Dan, face her fear and mine, and get to the tower." Neil nodded. "We can do this. We'll win." 

Kevin didn't look sure. 

"Damn fucking right," Allison hissed. She shoved away from Kevin, where he'd been helping her walk. "Let's get Dan and get the hell out." 

She stalked away from them, taking the lead. The others followed, her drive lifting them up. Grieve later. Fight now. 

Neil followed last. He wished he could say he was surprised when he rounded the corner and saw Andrew instead of his friends. 

He stopped, shoved his hands in his pockets. He'd never gotten his knife back from when he'd thrown it at the dog. 

"My condolences," Andrew said, emotionless, like he knew it was expected but didn't particularly care for the norm. 

He felt his control slip. Rage, grief, fear. This place was driving him crazy. His friends were dying, they were running out of time. And the Shadow Man didn't even care, mocked them all and watched them suffer. 

His chest constricted, he couldn't breath. He backed against the wall, tugging at his hair. 

"Neil?" 

He was helpless, he still had his own fear to face. 

Andrew stood in front of him. "Neil? Breathe."

His friends were going to die in here and it was all his fault. 

He felt Andrew's hand on his cheek. Turning his face to make him look into gold eyes. 

"You could have saved him." Neil heard his teeth as they snapped shut. 

Andrew sighed, "No, I couldn't have." 

"Bullshit. You saved me. You could've saved him." 

"No."

He wanted to punch Andrew. Punch that blank look off his face. He watched Seth scream as he clung to the metal spire, too afraid to even notice his friends. He dangled over that cliff, Andrew mocking him and making him ask for help. 

The pieces clicked. "That it, isn't it?" 

Andrew looked at him, confused and curious. "I don't know what you're talking about." 

Neil's sneer was sharp as ice shards, the panic faded as he regained some control over the situation. "You can't touch us. Can you?" 

Andrew went still, watching, waiting. 

"Seth attacked you and you didn't fight back. Not physically, at least. When you gave me the knife you made me take it from you. On the cliff you made me ask for help. You can't touch us without our permission." Neil's grin was savage. 

Andrew raised one golden brow and swiped his thumb across Neil's cheek. "Then how am I doing this?" 

Neil faltered. Then, "I touched you first. On the plane, I punched your cheek. I touched you first, so now you can touch me where I touched you." 

Andrew pulled his hand away, shoving Neil's face to the side and stalking back. His voice, however, was calm. "Looks like the scarecrow has a brain after all." 

Neil laughed. "How perfect. What use is a monster when he's chained to the wall?" 

"Fuck you." 

"You'd have to ask nicely first." Neil mocked. 

Neil didn't how to interpret the look on Andrew's face. He walked away instead, rounding the corner again. 

He rejoined his friends, only a step behind, as if he'd never left them. 

They continued down the hall. They held hands this times, a human chain. They'd been separated too many times. 

They hadn't been walking for long when they came across a hole in the floor. 

"No," Kevin said immediately. He turned around and started to walk away. Matt caught his shirt. 

Renee knelt down and peered inside, disappearing up to shoulders. 

"Renee," Allison said sharply. Neil moved closer, ready to grab Renee if anything happened. 

She sat up, "I can't see anything. It's too bright." 

"Too bright?" Matt asked. The hole seemed bottomless and it was anything but bright. 

Renee shrugged. "All I can hear is white noise? Like static or waves. And it's bright. White light that hurts my eyes." 

They circled the hole in the floor, wary. Kevin looked like he was about to jump out of his skin. 

"It's Dan." Matt said. He sat down at the edge of the hole, braced to jump. 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Renee grabbed his shoulders. "We don't know that." 

"It could be trap," Allison agreed. 

"It's her. When she was little, she went to thr beach. She swam out too far and panicked. She told me she almost drowned and all she could see was waves and sunlight." He looked at Renee, desperate. "You said you heard waves. That the light was too bright. It's her fearscape." 

"Okay," Kevin said. "Let's find a different way in. I'm not jumping blindly into a dark hole that, according to you, is filled with water." 

"What if she's dying? Drowning? I love her. She might be dying right now. I'm going." 

Matt jumped in and promptly disappeared. 

They stood in silence for one, two, three. . . and Allison jumped, Renee right behind her. 

Neil groaned but didn't hesitate. "You'll be alone if you stay," he told Kevin. 

The water was ice cold and ripped the breath from his chest. It was salt water and it burned the cuts on his body. He forced himself not scream. He could feel himself falling, a waterslide, rapidly moving and throwing water in his face. He knew better than to try to breathe. 

The tunnel got narrower, squeezing on his shoulders. He thanked god he wasn't claustrophobic. The amount of time he spent hiding in his own home as a child meant he found small spaces more comforting than constricting. 

He shot from the tunnel with a splash. The water was turbulent, throwing him back and forth with the rocking of the waves. He fought for the surface. Muscle memory kicked in; he hadn't swum in years. 

He breached the surface and gasped in a breath. He only got in one before something slammed into him, dragging him under again. He kicked out, hitting something warm and soft. A body. 

He kicked for the surface, finding Kevin next to him when he did. 

"Sorry." Kevin said when he noticed Neil's glare. 

They were a cavern, the roof a few dozen feet above their heads. It was completely solid except for a hole in the center at the highest point. Light shone from the crack, reflecting off the waves around them and making it hard to see. He needed to find the others. 

A wave reached them, lifting them up. He caught a glimpse of four bodies in the water near the wall. 

Four. 

"They found Dan!" Kevin yelled, grabbing a handful of Neil's shirt. The wave broke and sent them crashing back down. 

They kept hold of each other as they swam. Using the waves that lifted them to stay on the path to the others. 

A final wave sent them careening into the side of the cave. Neil grunted as he hit, grabbing on to a outstanding rock. His arm yanked back as the water ripped Kevin away. Neil grabbed him tighter, pulling him back to the wall. 

"Thanks," Kevin gasped, grabbing at the wall. 

"Neil! Kevin!" Dan yelled. "Thank god. You're okay!" 

She pulled them into a one armed hug, crushing them viciously with her gleeful affection. 

She went back to Matt. They clung to each other, eyes returning to each other every few seconds. Matt kissed her cheek. Neil hadn't realized how stressed Matt had been. Seeing him next to his fiancee again, made it clear how torn up he'd been. Neil made a note to thank him for holding it together. Later. When they were safe. 

Dan was shaking, her dark skin ashen and pale. Her lips trembled in shivers, fingers clenching and unclenching Matt's shirt with her muscle spasms. She was nearing hypothermia. Her skin was wrinkled with how long she'd been in the water. 

"Tell us what happened," Renee asked. 

"I was in the parlor with all of you. Then I was here," her voice trembled with the cold. "There wasn't any water at first. There wasn't anyway out." She laid her head on Matt's shoulder, breathing deeply. 

"Then the water rushed in. It's still is. It keeps getting deeper. I don't know what to do." 

Matt kissed her head. "We'll figure it out. I promise." 

"I'm so tired," Dan whispered. "It's been hours! I can't keep this up." 

"I know," Matt looked around at them. "But we have to. We have to win. Beat the game." 

"I know," Dan agreed. "I've never been a quitter."

Matt grinned and kissed her deeply. "Damn right, babe." 

Neil hated to interrupt. "I think our way out is that." He pointed to the crevice in the ceiling. 

"You said the water keeps getting higher. It's risen several feet just in the minutes since we've been here. We have to get out through there," Kevin agreed. 

Dan grimaced. "Yeah. That's what I was trying to avoid." 

"You can't avoid it," Allison said. "Running isn't a win." 

Dan heard the strain in her tone, but Renee shook her head. She was clinging to the wall behind Allison. Dan saw her and didn't ask. 

She knew though. Neil watched her eyes look at each of them, watched her realize who wasn't here. It didn't take her long to figure it out. She blinked away tears, turned away so Allison wouldn't see. 

"We need to stay together," Allison said. "No one gets separated." She grabbed Dan and Renee's hand. Dan stayed clinging to Matt. Renee held Neil's hand and Neil held on to Kevin. 

The water rose quickly. They had to work to stay above it. The walls started to curve into the ceiling and soon they dangled like bats from the roof. Neil's muscles protested. Water slammed into them, throwing them into the ceiling and each other. They had to time their breaths with the waves. 

"Dan should go first!" Matt gasped when they reach the ceiling crevice. "It's her fear. She needs to go first, to conquer it." 

Neil spit water out of his mouth, the salt stayed behind. 

They shuffled around to circle the hole, putting Dan in the middle. 

She stared in to the light, shaking her head. "I- I can't." She shook her head violently. "I can't. The water will go in. I'll be trapped. I'll get stuck and I won't ve able to breathe and - and -" 

Matt grabbed her face, holding her in front of him. Neil couldn't hear what he said. The water crashed around his head, the small air pocket they were in roared with the sound of waves. 

Whatever Matt said was enough. Dan nodded and kissed him. She reached up, gaining holds and yanked herself up into the crevice. She hesitated once and Matt climbed in after her, calling to her that he was right there. When his feet disappeared, Kevin went next; then Allison and Neil, with Renee behind him. 

The water was rising into the tunnel by now. He could hear the slap of waves beneath him. His friends frantic breathing echoed above him. 

He nearly let go when he felt water at his toes. 

"Renee!" He gasped, looking down. He could see her pastel hair, water slashing at her shoulders, then up over her face to Neil's toes. 

"I'm here. Just go. Hurry." He heard her spit water. Matt cursed above him. He heard Dan sobbing. They climbed faster. 

He climbed faster, panic spurring him on. He couldn't lose anyone else. He should've gone last. He should've gone last. 

Hands grabbed his shoulders and he was yanked out of the tunnel. He was dragged on to black hardwood floors. He rolled over. Dan lay next to him, hyperventilating and shaking. Matt rubbed her back, talking to her. Allison leaned against the wall, eyes closed. 

Kevin pulled Renee out. She coughed and collapsed on the ground. The first thing she did was thank Kevin for his help. The second was to ask if they were all okay. 

Neil laughed, they didn't deserve Renee. 

Water bubbled out of the floor. It turned to steam, surrounding them in heated mist. The hallway went white and hot. 

When the mist disappeared the hole was gone, nothing but black floorboards where it had been. 

Neil fell back against the floor. They made it. Another one down. 

He didn't know who started laughing first. Maybe it was him. Suddenly they were all laughing. It was hysterical and terrified and dreadful. 

They could do this. 

He could do this. 

He wondered about the cards they'd drawn their fears on when the game was still just a game. He wondered if the Shadow Man still had them or if he even used them - he could read their fears from their minds, after all. 

He wondered what it meant that he'd left his card blank.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's that! Let me know what you think! Please, comment! Thanks for reading.


	5. Heir Apparent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The End Game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! The finale! It took me a while to motivate myself to actually write it, but it got done before the semester started. See? I can keep promises. Sometimes. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy it. I barely proof read this so tell me about any mistakes. 
> 
> Yeah, it's short. Way shorter than I thought it would be but what can you do? 
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING FOR GRAPHIC VIOLENCE

TRIGGER WARNING FOR GRAPHIC VIOLENCE. 

The clock finished chiming. They were down to two hours. Neil couldn't remember hearing any other chimes as the hours passed. To be fair, there was a lot going on. 

Two hours. He couldn't decide if that was good or bad. It felt like they'd been here for centuries and no time at all. 

Long enough to get Seth killed. 

He glanced at Allison. She walked straight, head high; but her eyes were rimmed bright red, her lips bitten and torn.  
Renee and Dan walked on either side of her. 

"So what's yours?" Matt asked. Neil stiffened. "I know you probably don't want to talk about it. But..." 

"But we deserve a heads up," Kevin finished, head popping up between them. 

Neil eyed the hallway, stretching darkly in front of them. They seemed overdue for the next horror. Maybe a demon would round the corner and halt the interrogation. Neil was the worst friend ever. 

"I don't know," Neil admitted. 

Matt tilted his head. "You don't know? What did you draw?" 

Neil clenched his jaw, debating. He didn't want to tell them. They'd find out eventually. Unless they didnt? The blank card could mean anything. 

Behind him, Dan yelped. Neil turned and saw the three girls on the ground.

Neil's balance swayed and he landed hard on the ground. He heard Matt and Kevin hit the floor next. 

He felt himself lifted up, stomach swooping, then dropped again. The floor was rolling like waves. 

Neil was a terrible friend. 

To say running was difficult while the floor moved was an understatement. They were thrown into walls, stumbling all over the place. They kept ahold of each other, dragging each other to their feet when they fell. 

They approched a split; one side had a moving floor, the other side was still. Neil jumped for the steady ground, releasing his hold on Matt to brace his fall when the floor lurched. 

He landed hard, rolling over to get out of way. No one landed beside him. He sat up. 

A metal door blocked the hallway. There wasn't a handle on this side, but a small window was cut out at eye level. 

"Fuck," Neil said. He knew that door. He spent the first ten years of his life staring at that door waiting for it to open, waiting to be freed to the other side. 

He stood up, looking out the window. His friends were still there. Kevin and Dan were on the ground; Matt and Allison pulling them up. 

Renee moved in front of the window. He saw her lips move with his name. He couldn't hear her. 

She rattled the handle on her side to no avail. 

He watched the rapid fire conversation between his friends. They tried to kick down the door (Matt), to pick the lock (Renee). Nothing. 

"Thought you might prefer going it alone." 

Neil spun. Andrew stood behind him, propped against the wall. 

"You have a talent for getting me alone." 

Andrew hummed, ignored the comment. "Do you?" 

"Do I what?" 

"Want to go it alone? Your fearscape." 

"I get a choice?" 

Andrew's jaw jumped. "You always get a choice." 

Neil laughed. "Yeah. Cause I chose to play evil magic game of death." 

"You have a choice. With me. If it's something I can control." 

"Can we make a deal? You like those, right?" Neil raised an eyebrow. "You don't bullshit me. I don't bullshit you." 

"I've never lied." 

"Maybe. But you weren't honest when you sold me the game." 

"I told you that you shouldn't buy that one."

Neil ignored that. "You control this game. Tell me what I have to do to get my friends out." 

"Win." 

"Fuck you. Two hours isn't enough time."

"Make it through your fear. Get to the tower. Get out the door. That's how you win." 

The cold of the door behind him burned his skin. "And if I can't?" 

"That scared? What is it? Your fear?"

Neil rolled his eyes. "As if you don't know? You created it. You make the fears." 

"Is that what you think?"

"I'm wrong?"

Andrew grinned suddenly, savage and knowing. "A deal, you said? How about this? A truth for a truth." 

Neil considered. Did the blank card mean Andrew didn't know his fear? If Andrew didn't know, Neil telling him could make his fearscape that much worse. On the other hand, if he told, Andrew would explain how this worked. How to get his friends out. 

Neil sighed. There wasn't a choice. "My dad is a serial killer for the mafia."

Neil would've laughed at the surprised look on Andrew's face at any other time. How nice, to catch the fear demon off guard. "How does this place work? The fears?"

Andrew's blank expression was back. Neil wondered how it took him this long to notice how carefully created it was. 

"This is a haunted house. Literally. The house itself is sentient. Made ever changing, ever evolving by it's inhabitants. Each person's mind plays a part. You could control it as well as me. If you had half a brain, that is." 

Neil's mind spun. Mind over matter. Players versus the house itself. Fuck. How do you beat a house? 

"Then why are you here? If you can't do anything, why does the house need a Shadow Man?" 

Andrew just looked at him. Neil growled in frustration. What's one more secret in this hell?

"My father trained me to take his place. His heir." 

"You give out secrets easily for someone so scared of them," Andrew sounded irritated. He sighed, looked away. "Did it ever occur to you that I'm trapped, too? That maybe I'm playing my own game?"

Neil's mind spun. Froze. Skipped. Spun again. Andrew was a player not a creator. Trapped here, which means he lost his game. Neil's stomach sank. 

"I thought you died if you didn't win over your fear?"

Andrew's grin was manic, his voice mocking. "Maybe you do. I wouldn't know."

Neil felt goosebumps rise on his arms as a chill snakes down his spine. "I don't understand." 

"Color me surprised." 

Neil had had enough. He turned his back on Andrew, shoving this new information to his subconscious. Looking out the window for his friends, he caught Renee's eyes. 

He would do this alone. They had to get out. "Get to the tower. Get to the door. Go." He spoke slowly so she could read his lips. 

She shook her head. 

"I'll meet you there! I promise! Go. Get them out." 

She wavered when he mentioned the others. They stood behind her, arguing still about what to do. Renee bit her lip. Neil nodded. She closed her eyes and nodded back. 

Neil turned back to Andrew. The hallway was gone, replaced by a staircase leading to darkness. Andrew stood on the landing next to him. 

"For what it's worth, rabbit, I hope you win." 

"I will." Neil didn't allow doubt into his voice. "I know what's coming." 

Andrew looked at him. It was a strange look. Neil couldn't decipher it. Understanding? Condescension? Pity? 

"So did I," he said. "It doesn't make it easier."

Neil took a deep breath, holding it as he started down the stairs. 

●●●

Even knowing where he was going didn't prepare Neil for actually being there again. 

The basement of his childhood home had been his prison for five hours a day, every day. 

The large metal door that led to it, hidden behind bookshelves that lined the hall, had closed with a resounding clank behind Neil day after day. 

Death sounded like a metal latch slamming home. 

The basement was his father's office. A wall blocked off with bars to create a makeshift prison cell. A wall to display knives and axes and guns. 

A door at the back that opened on a tunnel to the garage. 

The room had been all grays once. Concrete floors and cement walls. It was black and brown and red now. Jack The Ripper through the eyes of Jackson Pollock, his father had joked once. He ears were ringing, loud and steady as a dental drill. 

"Hello, Nathaniel." His father stood in front of the weapons wall. Short but muscular, red hair like blood in the dim light. 

Neil froze, his heart beating in a painful and offbeat rhythm. He father smiled, wide and welcoming. 

"My wayward son, home at last." 

It was like the past decade didn't happen. Like Neil's mother had never ran with him. Like Neil hadn't run and hid and killed and suffered just to avoid ever facing his father ever again.

Neil had mastered the art of lying to his father. He hadn't cried or protested against him since he was six years old and his father beat him with a tire iron for crying over killing an animal. An animal animal, not a even a human animal. No, Neil played his part and he did what he had to do. If he spent the hours after his lessons puking and then crying himself to sleep, well his father never knew. Eventually, even that had stopped. And then his mother ran with him. He was ten years old and free of his father, but the freedom didn't last long because his mother hated tears and hesitation just as much as his father, even if she loved him more. 

Nathan circled his son. Neil turned to keep him in sight. His mind spun, what scared him most about seeing his father again? He didn't know. The list was long. The ringing ears was sharp and growing louder. God, shouldn't his ears be bleeding by now? 

Nathan's in prison, Neil reminded himself. He's in prison. He's in prison he's in prison he'sinprisonhe'sinprisonprisonprison. 

"I got you a homecoming gift." his father smiled as Neil turned to face the back wall. 

No. Nononono. Neil couldn't breath. Fire licked down his esophagus, turning his lungs to ash, petrifying his heart. 

His friends were here. All of them. 

He must have screamed, he felt pain in his throat. 

They lay strewn across the floor, dismembered and ripped open. Blood, god so much blood. 

Neil skidded to a stop, blood soaking his jeans. It was still warm. 

He ears were ringing. His friends were dying. His ears weren't ringing. His friends were screaming. They were alive. 

Neil felt a sickly relief, quickly washed away by nauseous guilt. He should hope they were dead. They deserved to be dead. Not this, never this. 

Neil slipped in the blood, soaking his clothes. He scrambled away, dragging his hands viciously along his shirt. 

The blood, the blood. Get it off. Get it off. Get it off! 

His father grabbed him by the hair, dragging him to the mirror on the opposing wall. Nathan liked to make his victims watch as he tore them apart. 

Neil was drenched his blood, his hands dripping. 

Nathan stood next to him, grinning. "My son. Don't you think we look good in red?" 

Neil retched. Nathan dropped him.

"You should know better than to love good things, Nathaniel. People like us don't get to keep the good things. And your mine, no matter how much of me you try to rip out of you. It's not as easy to do with your soul as it is with a name."

Neil's legs shot out, slamming into his fathers knees. Nathan shouted. Bone cracked. Nathan grabbed his knee, growling his fury and pain. 

Neil didn't waste time. He junged for his father. Nathan raised his knife, aiming for his son's face. Neil dodged the knife - right into his father's other hand. Nails scraped his cheek, scratches bleeding instantly. 

The fought for the knife, Neil using every dirty trick his mother or father ever taught him. He slammed his legs again Nathan's shattered knee, fingers going for the icy blue eyes. 

Nathan screamed as Neil pushed his fingers into his eyes. Neil always hated those eyes. Neil grabbed the axe from his father's desk, bringing it down on his father. Again and again and again again again again -

Why wouldn't the screaming stop?!

Neil stopped screaming, stumbling back against the wall. His father's body wasnt much of a body anymore. 

He caught sight of himself in the mirror again. Drenched in blood so thick it was almost black; three scratches on his cheek from his father's nails; the ax hung from his hand, dripping. Neil's hair was red as blood in the light and his eyes were hard as granite. He looked like Nathan. He looked like his father. 

He did not feel guilty. 

He was, after all, his father's son. 

Neil went numb. He dragged what was left of his father's body to the tub in the corner. His torso detached as Neil dragged him and he had to go back to drag the legs to the tub. 

He'd watched his father dispose of bodies many times. It left no trace. He found the acids in the storage cabinet, dumping them into the tub. An acrid smell filled the room as the chemicals worked on dissolving tissue and bone. Neil preferred his smell over the iron tang of blood. 

He mopped the blood into the grates in the floor, hosing down the floor. 

His friends deserved better. He left their bodies untouched. He stayed away from the half of the room entirely. 

Clean up your mess, he thought. Then call the cops on your father's. He organized his lies. He would walk away from this. Did he want to? 

He choked on a sob, bile climbing up his throat. This can't be real. How did he let this happen? Fuck. This can't be happening.

Like ice down his spine, he remembered the game. It wasn't real. Fuck. And he'd lost his mind. Fuck. 

He pulled his hair. How could let himself lose it so completely? Stupid! 

A threw down the mop, looking to his friends' bodies. They weren't there. 

Of course, not you dumbass! He'd wasted so much time! He sprinted for the stairs. 

Neil threw himself at the door. 

He slammed into a body, the person managing to catch him and strady them both without falling. 

Neil knew who it was without looking. He collapsed on the floor anyway. The aftershock of adrenaline left him weak and reeling from his fearscape. 

He'd taken his friends for granted if this is how they felt after each fear. 

"Not gonna lie," Andrew said, "that was interesting. Way more than I expected." 

Neil felt rage point at his insides qith ice picks. "I told you - my father - was a - killer," he gasped out. 

Andrew hummed. "Noticed." He tapped his fingers on his leg. He continued, reluctant, "you have twenty minutes to make it to the tower and the door at the top. Your friends are there. Seems their just as stupid as you; they won't leave without you." 

The relief Neil felt at hearing they made it was replaced with exasperation that they hadn't left. 

"Idiots," he hissed, allowing Andrew to pull him to his feet. 

"Must be why you all get along." 

Neil took off at a run. He didn't know where to go, but up seemed like a good idea. He ran until he found stairs. The spiraled, going higher than Neil could see. He groaned, and started climbing. 

It took him a long time to reach the top. He found Andrew there. "What the fucking hell? How?" 

Andrew just smirked. He motioned to the door. "You have five minutes." 

Neil still hesitated. "You said, before, you said you weren't trapped here becauseyou failed to overcome your fear." 

Andrew started at him, blank but waiting. 

"You didn't make it to the door in time." 

Andrew tsked. "I don't lose, Neil."

Neil didn't know if that was the first time Andrew had said his name, he didn't think so. But it felt like it. Something was... off. Different.

Neil rememebered what Andrew said about the house creating things using them. He wondered what happened if no one was here for the house to use. He wondered if someone always had to stay. 

Neil wanted to ask how Andrew got here, why he stayed. What his fear was and if he'd played alone. A truth for a truth. 

But Neil had nothing left that would equal Andrew's honesty. 

Instead he said, "The house needs someone here, doesn't it? It won't let everyone leave." 

"You get smarter every time, we talk. It would be annoying if it wasn't so interesting." 

"You're obsessed with things being interesting."

"You think predictable is fun?"

"It's simple. Safe." 

"It's boring." Andrew glanced pointedly at a watch on his wrist. 

Neil decided to bite the bullet. "If one of us stays, does that free you? Is that why you tricked me to play?"

"I didn't trick you. And the rest is irrelevant, is it not? Unless you have a martyr complex." 

"Maybe I do." 

Andrew shoved the door open. "Go." 

"But-"

"I can take care of myself. Get out. I'm tired of looking at your face." 

Neil laughed. He saw his friends waiting inside. They stood in front a large door, the opened into free air several stories high. 

He looked again at Andrew. He thought of how it felt to be trapped in his basement. Not now, here, in this nightmare, but as a kid in the real world. 

"What if I can figure out how to get you out? Trade you for someone else, someone else who deserves it?" 

Andrew looked at him, eyes steady and unwavering. "What makes you think I don't deserve it?" When Neil opened his mouth to protest, he continued. "I know how to get out. Now leave." 

Andrew shoved him in the room, slamming the door behind Neil. 

He was instantly swarmed by his friends, struggling to breathe in a crushing group hug. He blinked away the sight of their mangled bodies and replaced it with this. 

They were all worse for wear. Renee was staring at the blood on his clothes, though she didn't look much better. But they'd survived. Allison stared at the door, as though waiting for someone to come through. 

Neil squeezed her hand as Dan pulled her away. 

"We need to go. Now!" Kevin pointed at the clock. They were down to seconds. 

They went through the door together. The fall was several stories into a pitch black black lake. The wind tore at his clothes, screaming in his ears. Cold, so cold. He didn't remember hitting the lake. 

●●●

*THREE WEEKS LATER*

They'd woken up on the living room floor of Matt's house. It was just past dawn, sunlight filtering through the blinds. 

It would've been easy to think it was a dream . . . Except that Seth was gone. 

They destroyed the paper house, shoving it roughly into the box. They searched the house for matches to burn it. When they returned to the living room, victorious with matches held high, the game was gone. 

They searched for it for a while. They were all too glad it was gone to care about what it meant. 

They swore their silence, no one would believe them anyway. 

Two days later, Seth's roommates filed a missing persons report. A former drug addict with a history of running away and no evidence of a crime meant the police didn't make it much of a priority.

Allison was enraged at their disregard, they all were. But they couldn't do anything. They knew the truth and it was better off people didn't snoop around. 

Neil sat on the roof of his apartment, a lit but unsmoked cigarette in his hand. 

He didn't know what to do. Things felt unfinished. 

Gravel scraped behind him and he shifted. 

"Told you I could take care of myself," a familiar voice said. 

"You bastard," Neil whispered. 

Andrew looked different outside of the game, no longer the Shadow Man of a magical sentient house. His hair was white blonde still but not so opalescent and his eyes were hazel than gold. 

"You're still short." Neil wouldn't give him the satisfaction of asking how. 

"You're still a pipe dream." Andrew sat down next to him. 

"Well, if nightmares can be real, why can't dreams?" Neil asked. He didn't if he was doing this right. Didn't know what it meant that Andrew was here, was real. 

Andrew tossed a newspaper down between them. It was a local publication from a few counties over. Neil read over the headlines. 

Only one stood out. Another missing person. Former military guy named Drake Spear. He disappeared without a trace one week ago. His mother was frantic. Police said he went off alone a lot and they weren't concerned. His mother attested that he never disappeared without telling her first or calling every few days. 

Andrew's face was carefully blank. "I didn't play alone. I had a plan."

He curled his nose at Neil's cigarette and stole it. "Don't be wasteful." 

Neil grinned and lit another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm considering doing a short one chapter thing from Andrews POV about how he got there and what happened after. Lmk if that's something you guys want. 
> 
> In case you were wondering, he played with Nicky and Aaron. 
> 
> And that's it! I hope it wasn't disappointing. Please commet! Tell me what you think.

**Author's Note:**

> The song the Seth was playing was Ultraviolence by Memory of a Melody. It's been Neil's theme song since I read the books the first time. 
> 
> Please comment! Updates come faster if I get feedback.


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